It’s time to focus on preserving public safety while permitting a market system to thrive through the entire supply chain, from producer to consumer
By Alex Whalen and Ian Madsen Contributors In October 2012, Gerard Comeau left his home in Tracadie, N.B, and drove to Quebec to buy alcohol. Comeau, a retired power lineman, knew he could buy the same alcohol for less in Quebec. However, upon returning to New Brunswick, Comeau was stopped by the RCMP and charged…
There’s never been a better time to have a free-trade, investment and work-permit regime between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore
As international trade deals devolve – or disintegrate – new opportunities should present themselves. Britain is leaving the European Union. Canada may be forced to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if President Donald Trump’s conditions for Canada’s membership become too painful. Several other nations are in unsatisfactory trade and investment treaties, and…
The energy revolution has brought conventional utilities to the brink, only to discover that solar and wind power can’t be relied on
Australia’s new National Energy Guarantee (NEG) has a sad, dangerous resemblance to Canadian policy. It’s a desperate attempt to make renewable energy projects viable when they’re not. The idea is to always have ‘dispatchable power’ – alternative sources – available to relieve brownouts and blackouts that result from an increasing dependency on renewable power. The…
On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, some romantics still embrace the fallacies of communism and its sister socialism
A number of Canadian newspapers recently noted the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The attention was misplaced and lacked perspective. In 1917, a small band of fierce, committed and violent extremists seized control of the Tsarist Russian Empire. They then created the much more oppressive and murderous Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. After the success…
We placed a dismal 18th for ease of doing business, even behind such countries as Georgia and Macedonia
The World Bank recently issued its annual report on the ease of doing business in 190 countries and territories. And, again, Canada isn’t near the top – in fact, we sit 18th. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there’s room for improvement. Small New Zealand was first, Singapore second and Denmark third. Our main…
An IMF report uses Italy to highlight the dangers of a bloated, unproductive public sector, but it is just pertinent to Canada
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a study released with its latest Global Financial Stability Report, chided Italy, a perennial underperformer famous for its large, unaffordable and growth-stifling public sector. Why does this matter to anyone outside that beautiful, historic Mediterranean country? Because the follies of the modern Romans aren’t unique. They suffuse Canada and…
While gender diversity is a good idea, management should remain focused on how to adapt to new opportunities or potential hazards
A few months ago, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the self-described "third largest asset advisor in the world," celebrated the first anniversary of its creation of a new specialty exchange traded fund. Its name is a mouthful: the SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF (SHE). An exchange traded fund, or ETF, is a basket of…
Those who fight pipelines and shrug at the higher risks of rail transportation are naive at best and deceitful at worst
The Canadian economy is dependent on oil and gas, including the pipelines that transport them. Billions of dollars in fossil fuel exports pay for nearly all the things Canada doesn’t produce; Canada is a net importer of everything else. Yet the opponents of fossil fuels don’t seem to care that their opposition to pipelines will…
They lack the discipline of the marketplace and the ambition that comes from a desire to grow and improve to gain profit
The free-market corporate world has mechanisms to fix its messes. Not so the realm of Crown corporations. There have been a number of problems in ordinary corporate governance in recent decades. Boards of directors are charged with supervising management of market corporations. Boards establish performance standards for managers and set their pay levels. They also…
Professionals, farmers and entrepreneurs are paying their fair share; raising their taxes will dampen investment and risk-taking
Instead of clamping down on the entrepreneurs who drive Canada's economy, the federal government needs to back off on all taxation. The federal government is determined to eliminate the perceived income tax benefit provided to people who incorporate. The argument is that those who incorporate get an unfair benefit at the expense of Canadians who…
By Alex Whalen and Ian Madsen Contributors In October 2012, Gerard Comeau left his home in Tracadie, N.B, and drove to Quebec to buy alcohol. Comeau, a retired power lineman, knew he could buy the same alcohol for less in Quebec. However, upon returning to New Brunswick, Comeau was stopped by the RCMP and charged…
