Increases to the Marginal Effective Tax Rate taking even more of your hard-earned money
New Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is correct when he says governments discourage work with taxes and clawbacks. The Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) measures what government takes from each new dollar earned in taxes and clawbacks of income-related government benefits. In his leadership acceptance speech and an August 19 video called “Make work pay,” Poilievre…
The only options left for Canadians are a tax revolt, voting out the government, or a job working for the feds
Why work for yourself when taxpayers can pay you instead? In the past seven years, more Manitobans than ever have chosen the job security and benefits of federal employment, while the self-employed have begun to vanish. Statistics Canada snapshots show the most stunning growth of total salaries in one category of worker: federal government public…
He scaled back the public service. Will his successor be able to maintain that momentum?
Former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister might best be remembered as the Grinch who stole the 2020 Christmas, forbidding citizens from in-person shopping and gathering for the holiday. However, he has another legacy, more like the Canadian Tire Christmas commercials that said, “Give like Santa, save like Scrooge.” Pallister was both Santa and Scrooge by restraining…
Do you believe “Big events (wars, recessions, elections) are controlled by small groups secretly working against the rest of us”? Abacus surveyed 1,500 Canadians on that question, and 44 per cent agreed. However, the pollster characterized those who “believe dangerous contrarian theories” and “mistrust what media report and what governments say” as “a poison affecting…
Supply chain problems, aging demographics and the push for net zero will drive up government spending
The era of low interest rates and inflation has ended, and now is the time for governments to show restraint. But recent precedent suggests that’s unlikely. Canadian year-over-year inflation hit 7.7 per cent in May, the highest in nearly 40 years, and I predict it will go still higher. Ten years ago, Parliamentary Budget Officer…
COVID will go around forever, endlessly mutating but relatively benign
If public health, a vibrant economy and preserving our constitutional freedoms were the goal, then Canadian institutions have gotten nearly everything wrong when it comes to COVID-19. Government policy, academia and mainstream media have fallen to COVID-ism, a condition where the COVID narrative formed in March 2020 must be maintained at all costs and dissent…
More than 100 years after H.G. Wells forecast big changes in the world order, the tide is turning
Democratic capitalism is a remarkably empowering and wealth-generating structure. Although wealth is not a zero-sum game, power may well be. In his 2011 book The Fruits of Graft: Great Depressions Then and Now, Wayne Jett explores how certain elitists have actively sought to undermine the masses and usurp political and economic power for themselves. In H.G.…
Even apolitical international agencies are condemning the Trudeau government's actions
Canada’s federal travel mandates are so oppressive that even apolitical international agencies have stepped up to condemn them. The International Air Transport Association has added its voice to the official Opposition Conservative Party, citizens, airline staff fired for their vaccination status, and grounded and disgruntled air passengers who want to fly hassle-free. IATA regional vice-president…
One of the greatest peacetime policy failures in Canada’s history
COVID-19 just ain’t what it used to be. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was never as deadly as feared in its early days and has evolved to be even less so today. The vaccines rushed to production in response weren’t the answer that some hoped and they’ve proved less effective as the virus evolves. It’s high time…
Tax burdens and living costs prevent most intact parental couples from raising their children at home
What would be better – children conceived by random intercourse and raised by the state, or children raised by their parents in the same household? Plato, the Greek philosopher from ancient times, said the former; and whether we realize it or not, his philosophy has dragged public policy for decades. “Our men and women,” Plato…
New Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is correct when he says governments discourage work with taxes and clawbacks. The Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) measures what government takes from each new dollar earned in taxes and clawbacks of income-related government benefits. In his leadership acceptance speech and an August 19 video called “Make work pay,” Poilievre…
