President Obama has kicked off a three-day bus tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, where the corn is high and at least some factories are spewing smoke. He’s holding town-hall meetings on the economy, putting the unemployed back to work and “growing wages for everyone.” He won these Midwestern states handily in 2008, but he’s not taking anything for granted these days. The Midwest is the region with the largest number of target states.
Workplace
Canada’s Contract Killer
In Canada, 15 per cent of the workforce is self-employed. Australia's rate is 18.5 per cent. Recently I proposed the idea that there's a distinct link between self-employment and entrepreneurial innovation. Self-employed people are, by behaviour and motivation,...
Good Bye Forced Funding of Union Advertising: Expect to see ‘paycheque protection’
Paycheque protection legislation which requires that union dues be spent solely on collective bargaining, not partisan politics and advertising is looming on Canada’s policy landscape.
Canadian Human Rights Commission Goes After Free Speech
In Canada, for instance, freedom of speech is not constitutionally guaranteed to the same degree it is in America. And those wishing for a glimpse into how forces sympathetic to Islamism will try to influence (read: stifle) public debate about the Muslim faith should be aware of recent Canadian experiences.
Featured News
Timeless Wisdom – The Politics of Successful Structural Reform
It’s a well-known pattern in public policy – profligate politicians damaging their economies with out-of-control spending, massive borrowing and higher taxes – inevitably leading to fiscal crisis, sharp declines in growth and ultimately rapidly falling currency value...
Canada’s National Hysteria in the 21st Century
Mass hysteria is the spontaneous manifestation of a particular behaviour by many people. There are numerous historical examples: Middle Age nuns at a convent in France spontaneously began to meow like cats; at another convent, nuns began biting one another. In...
Manitoba Labour Laws Squander Kyoto Advantage
The Kyoto Accord could bring Manitoba higher rates of economic growth and more people, but only if we get our own labour laws in order
Dollarize with Care: Argentina’s Lessons for Canada
The 62-cent Canadian Peso means that Florida vacations have become an impossible luxury for most Canadians. More importantly, high levels of taxes and government spending are constantly compromising the real values of our homes, investments and pensions – policies that drive the loonie even lower. The idea of adopting the U.S. dollar might bring a glimmer of hope to some.
Public Sector vs Private Sector Union Membership by Province (FC000)
Statistics showing union density in Canada heavily skewed toward public sector.
Manitoba NDP’s Labour Conundrum
New legal privileges for organized labour in Manitoba are shortsighted.
Why Young People are Important
The population of the Earth now numbers more than 6 billion. That’s a lot of people. This fact reminds us of the Malthusian population curve, the exponential line where the planet’s resources cannot meet the needs of an exploding populace. Despite the worries of doomcasters, this curve is simply bad history.
Enlightened Unionism – Competitive Model
Two years ago at a conference on local government reform, I met Stephan Fantauzzo, a union leader who represents municipal workers in the City of Indianapolis. Fantauzzo provided a union perspective on the wave of reform now underway in local government. It was a...
Public Pension Folly
Canadians should not be held accountable for the government’s spending, by contributing more to the Canadian Pension Plan. It is clear based on the downfalls of central planning that what Canada needs are private pension plans.
Stephan Fantauzzo, Executive Director, AFSCME, Indianapolis local
Last spring the Frontier Centre invited a union leader from Indianapolis to visit Winnipeg, to speak on that city’s policy of “managed competition”. Stephan Fantauzzo is Executive Director of Council 62, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and represents civic workers at the City of Indianapolis.
CPP’s False Alternatives
It should be noted that the best, most effective reform for the CPP would be to have a privately-owned pension system.