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Harpernomics
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
March 29, 2010
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty responded to our report with harsh words. Both criticized the report as being “ideologically” motivated. Minister Flaherty was “disappointed” and remarked that our report was “poorly done” and “shabby.” …
Our study, supported by a large body of academic evidence, confirms that the stimulus package didn’t work. It’s time for the government to admit its stimulus mistake and return to prudent fiscal policies.
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Staying home with the kids
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
March 24, 2010
Having children is a choice. Having several children, if one has trouble making ends meet with just one child, is also a choice. Putting one’s children in daycare at an early age is another choice. But asking the rest of society to support choices that may not be in children’s best interest is difficult to justify.
Tags: child care
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
America’s health, and our own
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
March 23, 2010
While nominally paying lip service to “one-tier” health care, we have permitted a welter of private solutions: Worker’s compensation health networks, private clinics in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, a private pharmacare system, and, of course, the reality that legions of Canadians — including Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams — simply head to the United States, where they pay cash at the door.
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Liberals make big plans for something called ‘the social economy’
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
March 23, 2010
“The social economy, encompassing the community, voluntary and social enterprise sectors of our economy, plays a key role in Canada’s social fabric,” said Alexandra Mendès… The roundtable is intended to engage social economy leaders in identifying needs and priorities for capacity-building and financing initiatives.
Tags: poverty
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Reforming Ontario’s property tax system
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
March 22, 2010
…the vast Orwellian bureaucracy known as the Municipal Property Tax Corporation (MPAC) …spent over $180-million in 2008, an 11% increase from 2007. This cost doesn’t even include the millions in subsidies that the government has to provide to seniors so they don’t lose their homes because of rising property taxes due to MPAC. …the McGuinty government has shown no interest in bringing in a fairer or more affordable municipal tax system, including this one. Perhaps the need to cut a $25-billion deficit will make them more serious about eliminating those government bureaucracies that Ontarians can do without.
Tags: tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
A second opinion on Canadian and American health care
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
March 20, 2010
Canada, it should abandon its nonsensical ban on private medical insurance for essential health-care needs… There should be a medical-visit user fee for those who can afford it and absolute guaranties against unacceptable waits. In the name of equality, Canada has imposed what amounts to a capricious and inhumane health-care rationing system that should be acknowledged and ended.
Tags: privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
What level of ‘pensions’ do Canadians really want?
Friday, March 19th, 2010
March 19, 2010
Canadians — employers, employees and the self-employed — need both adequate information and, most importantly, appropriate vehicles to provide efficient risk-adjusted management of their savings both during working years and in retirement… if Canadians want high incomes and consumption in their retirement years, they will have to save more of their incomes and forgo more consumption during their earning years.
Tags: pensions
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ask not what Ottawa can do for you? [immigration guide]
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
March 16, 2010
What distinguishes Canada from so much of the non-Western world is that, human rights commissions notwithstanding, the government is restrained from interfering in personal matters of religion and thought… The 68-page guide devotes less than half a page (roughly 14 lines) to the totality of our traditional ordered liberties, including habeas corpus. And those 14 lines are merely a list with no elaboration or examples.
Tags: immigration
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Road map to a balanced budget
Monday, March 15th, 2010
March 15, 2010
…our government has a clear three-point plan to return to a balanced budget. First, we will wind down as planned the temporary measures in the Economic Action Plan. These investments are protecting and creating jobs now. Second, we will take action to ensure government lives within its means. And third, we will conduct a comprehensive review of government administrative and overhead costs.
Tags: economy
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The mother of all loopholes [non-resident tax-free status]
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
March 10, 2010
… the Conservative’s snipping of a raft of erroneous tax loopholes met with near universal applause, and rightly so. It strains credulity to imagine how it was in taxpayers’ interest to subsidize fellow Canadians’ Botox treatments and chin tucks. Similarly it defies logic, in an era of fiscal restraint, to allow corporate mucky-mucks to use generous stock options to take gobs of cash out of their companies tax free.
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
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