The role of government in a democracy isn’t to create barriers to free choice
As parts of the world begin to turn the corner with COVID-19, the discussion related to mandatory COVID-19 vaccine passports has started to intensify. A vaccine passport is a document that confirms an individual’s full immunization against COVID-19. It will contain a proper record of the COVID-19 vaccine doses that a person received and may…
G7 countries will further cripple their economies by pursuing their green energy fantasies
At their meeting in June, G7 leaders agreed to a greenhouse gas emissions target of “net zero” by 2050. That would require phasing out fossil fuels that currently supply 84 per cent of global energy. But how? The common reply is “putting a price on carbon,” i.e., carbon taxes. But unless there’s a viable alternative,…
Premier Horgan really needs to start getting his spending under control
The interest payments on British Columbia’s provincial debt this year could pay the salaries of 4,600 new paramedics for 10 years. But, instead of paying for first responders or providing tax relief to families, a whopping $2.8 billion is being sent to bondholders on Bay Street and Wall Street every year to pay for our…
Decentralization of supply management led to better results
Vaccines are seen as the key to ending the COVID-19 crisis. But creating a vaccine is one thing; having enough of it for the population is another. Here comes the problem of supply management. From the beginning of the crisis, many pharmacy laboratories worldwide tried to develop a vaccine against the virus. Some of them…
The current Liberal iteration hasn’t been in power long enough for serious fatigue to set in and Justin Trudeau isn’t Paul Martin
Should the mooted federal election materialize, it’ll be the third time in 50 years that a minority Liberal government took an early trip to the polls. So will the result resemble Pierre Trudeau of 1972 and 1974 (a minority followed by a big victory) or Paul Martin of 2004 and 2006 (a minority followed by…
Even the National Police Federation, Canada’s largest police union, believes the buyback will do little to curb criminality
By Franco Terrazzano and Kevin Lacey Canadian Taxpayers Federation Here we go again. Ottawa’s budget watchdog is on the trail of another big taxpayer boondoggle in the making with the federal government’s latest gun policy. First, a Liberal government introduced the gun registry in the 1990s. That was supposed to cost $2 million, but, by…
Before our fiscal house falls to pieces
There’s only so many times that you can superglue the same broken mug back together, and there’s only so much debt a country can pile up before there are serious consequences. COVID-19 subsidies were always supposed to be temporary and now it’s time for the feds to set a concrete end date to all this…
... and more corporate welfare
Canadian politicians like Chrystia Freeland see tax competition as a “race to the bottom.” But for the rest of us, a global tax cartel will mean an inevitable march toward higher tax bills and more pork for companies with access to politicians. Freeland agreed to the American-led proposal for a global minimum business tax of…
The regulatory environment in Canada makes foreign expansion not only more attractive but necessary to avoid stagnation or decline
A bidding war erupted recently between Canada’s two mammoth and historic railways, Canadian National (CN) and archrival Canadian Pacific (CP), for the American railroad Kansas City Southern (KCS). KCS ultimately accepted CN’s US$30-billion bid after scrapping CP’s US$33.6-billion offer. This is all about KCS’s mid-American location and its extensive network in Mexico, where there’s considerable…
Relaxing measures at the border could serve as an indication that vaccination efforts are working
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made no secret about his belief that every Canadian should get vaccinated. “I just want to get back to normal,” he said in May, insisting that the path back to normality was to ensure that everybody, including the “crusty old uncle who resists” or a “friend who’s skeptical,” take a…
Canada must not fall for Hamas’ propaganda. The Palestinian people deserve better
Canada has carved a niche for itself in the global space as a country dedicated to peace, moral values, and human rights. Whether it was the Conservative government’s commitment to maternal health under the Millennium Development Goals and defending democracies, or the Liberal government’s leadership in human security and in creating the Responsibility to Protect…
On average, drug approvals take three months longer in Canada than in the U.S. and one month longer than in Europe
By Maria Lily Shaw and Krystle Wittevrongel Montreal Economic Institute The past year has shown us beyond the shadow of a doubt that human ingenuity is a match for the greatest of challenges. The rapid development and mass production of several COVID-19 vaccines are proof of our remarkable capacity for innovation. Pharmaceutical innovation, one of…
A single year to legalize such a wholesale change about the ending of human life signals a country moving away from its past
For two evenings recently, my Cardus colleagues and a panel of expert guests have engaged in an in-depth discussion on YouTube on Canada’s post-COVID future. They covered an impressive range of issues from education to the bifurcation of society as the pandemic exposed real, and really troubling, differences in how cohorts of Canadian society were…
Albertans have tried to work within the system but it is stacked against them
For many Albertans, it is 1775. A year later, as every American knows, the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. At the time the Colonies were still part of the British Empire; it is, therefore, a British as much as an American document, which is why its logic has such a wide appeal today…
Allowing politicians alone to change the Senate creates a system that suits their interests ahead of the common good
Canada needs to finally have a broad conversation about Senate reform before politicians and interest groups transform the institution without the participation of average citizens. The federal government has introduced a bill in the Senate that would formally recognize the Senate changes the Liberal government has been introducing since its first election in 2015. These…