Climate chaos is a product of computer models, a phoney scientific ‘consensus’ and hysterical headlines – not real world evidence
Corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards were devised in 1975, amid anxiety over the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo and supposedly imminent depletion of the world’s oil supplies. But barely 15 years after Edwin Drake drilled the first successful oil well in 1859, a Pennsylvania geologist was saying the United States would…
An open letter to Premier Doug Ford and Minister Lisa MacLeod concerning the cancellation of the Ontario basic income pilot
Dear Premier Doug Ford and Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod, We, collectively, represent the principal investigators, research teams and stakeholder groups behind several distinct basic income experiments underway in Finland, Scotland, the Netherlands, the United States, Spain, Kenya and India. We profoundly regret that you chose to cancel the Ontario Basic Income…
To keep our economy buoyant, we must increase the number of consumers, workers and entrepreneurs
Nobody wants a recession. We all want to maintain our level of living and maybe even improve it with better housing, holidays or health care. For this to happen, our gross national product (GNP), the total pile of goods and services Canada produces, has to grow. GNP is measured in dollars but it’s not about…
Is this the kind of workplace we want to create for teachers, where any remark might be taken as either perverse or oppressive?
In Ontario, sex education remains one of those writhing cans of worms that nobody wanted opened and nobody can close. The centre of the squirming mess is a debate over whether sex ed – and by extension, sexual morality – is a private or public concern. Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won the last Ontario election,…
A legal win for the plaintiff would mean money for lawyers and a marginal payout for drivers. And it could cripple the business
SkipTheDishes driver Charleen Pokorik wants a different job. More precisely, she wants to do the same job but for the company to cover everything. Its founders left jobs like that to form the company, but she won’t do the same to be paid in the manner she wants. The result is a class action lawsuit…
The 2015 and 2016 Jays were wildly successful but that winning culture couldn't be sustained. A new winning era will take time
In retail, the time-honoured phrase is “Under-promise and over-deliver.” In sports, you might amend that to: “If you promise something, you’d better deliver.” The history of sport is lined with examples of a fan base turning on a team that, just years earlier, it had worshipped. My book Ice Storm catalogues the meteoric romance between…
No shows: Trump or Palin; but plenty of others on all sides of the political spectrum at senator's funeral
Many people were saddened by John McCain’s death on Aug. 25 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. The 81-year-old military hero and former Republican presidential candidate honourably served Arizona both in the U.S. House of Representatives (1983-1987) and in the Senate (1987-2018). McCain was generally onside with fiscal and social conservative ideas. Nevertheless, he…
We must insist that immigrants don’t become a burden on the public purse, while finding a way to process them all expeditiously
Europe is tearing itself apart over immigration. There are just too many applicants for too few spots. Many of the people seeking to come to Europe are from war torn countries like Syria, or from failed states in Africa like Somalia and Libya. Some are genuine asylum seekers, who would be in great danger if…
As far back as the Viking age, the Swedes were troublemakers of the first order. And they persisted for centuries
Walking around Stockholm on a recent sunny Sunday, I was struck again by a nagging question: When and why did the Swedes become the peace-loving exemplars we’ve come to know and sometimes envy? They weren’t always like that. Far from it. As far back as the Viking age (circa 793-1050), the Swedes were troublemakers of…
Diversity separated from unity is generally not a good thing. We need unity of purpose, on the field and in life
Diversity concerns have been front and centre in recent days. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau characterized a woman’s view as “racist” after she heckled him; Maxime Bernier criticized “extreme multiculturalism” before he left the Conservative Party to set up his own. Rhetoric about diversity can be both heated and so routine as to be boilerplate, obscuring…
The long, convoluted path to rejection demonstrates an approval process that is fundamentally flawed on so many levels
“The current state of affairs in Canada is such that building a pipeline to tidewater is practically impossible,” says Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Truer words were rarely spoken. These ones were spoken at an Aug. 30 press conference as the courts set back the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The hurdles, it seems, never end. The…
Vancouver taxes and spends far more than neighbouring Surrey. But do Vancouverites get value for their greater investment?
By Josef Filipowicz and Charles Lammam The Fraser Institute With three levels of government delivering a wide array of services to British Columbians – paid for by an equally wide array of taxes, fees and transfers – it can be difficult for citizens to understand and assess government taxation and spending – especially at city…
U.S. tactics included troop invasions, use of poison gas and aerial bombings of major Canadian cities
The current U.S. president’s bullying of Canada over trade issues is causing some Canadians to question just how close our relationship is with our neighbour to the south. Peter Bailey tells the tale of a time not so long ago when hawkish voices in the U.S. were plotting the ultimate hostile act – a full-scale…
In the selfish era of Donald Trump, McCain’s life offered a shining example of how to serve with distinction
It’s hard for Canadian citizens to take the full measure of an American politician like John McCain, whose route to public service glory began in the combat of the Vietnam War. Our country doesn’t particularly valourize the military and those who serve, unless perhaps they do peacekeeping missions with the United Nations overseas. McCain’s career…
Canada has been late to fully capitalize on the potential, based on high export prices and the desperate demand for clean fuel
Canada’s planned liquefied natural gas export project is a huge boost for the economy and the environment. The consortium of large multinational firms (Shell, PetroChina, Petronas of Malaysia, Korea Gas, Mitsubishi) that owns part of the LNG Canada project to be built on the northwest coast of British Columbia recently announced that contracts have been…
Corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards were devised in 1975, amid anxiety over the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo and supposedly imminent depletion of the world’s oil supplies. But barely 15 years after Edwin Drake drilled the first successful oil well in 1859, a Pennsylvania geologist was saying the United States would…
