Confederation was designed as an economic union from sea to sea, linked by infrastructure that crosses provincial borders
During the recent French and English language debates for the Conservative leadership, one of the two leading candidates accused the other of wanting to impose an oil pipeline on Quebec without its consent. Erin O’Toole, the Conservative MP for Durham, Ont., articulated his vision for a national energy corridor throughout Canada. He was then accused…
Canada's kindergarten-to-Grade 12 system flourishes because it's controlled by the provinces, which often show great innovation and creativity
By Jason Clemens and Tegan Hill The Fraser Institute One of Canada’s great political strengths is that we’re a federalist country, meaning we have constituent provinces with significant powers that are distinguishable from the national government. This separation of powers, at least theoretically, allows the country to split the responsibility for different programs between the…
Instead of asking for more money and all the strings that come attached, the provinces should ask for more freedom to try new delivery models
By Bacchus Barua and Ben Eisen The Fraser Institute Despite their differences, it seems Canada’s premiers are united in one thing: demanding more federal health-care dollars. But nobody talked about the price the premiers must pay for the money from Ottawa: the freedom to design and implement policies that could actually improve care. At the…
It was actually the federal Liberals and Alberta’s previous NDP government that did the heavy lifting needed to get the project started
It was more than a little disingenuous for Alberta’s still newish UCP government to stand up and claim last week that its “perseverance” led to the start of construction of the long-delayed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. “Perseverance has got us to this point,” clucked Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage. “When others were criticizing our energy…
Centralization undermines bottom-up co-ordination already underway between the provinces and territories
Advocates for centralized financial regulation have met their match in Canada. The nation is proof that competition between intranational jurisdictions can foster diverse, prosperous capital markets. In the research paper, The Federal Takeover of Canada’s Capital Markets, we argue the decades-long push for a national securities regulator is a solution in search of a problem.…
The prime minister, Ontario premier and their advisers realize the lines of communication must stay open for the good of the country
When Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently went to Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some people assumed the worst would happen. It’s no secret Ford doesn’t care for Trudeau. The former’s disagreement about implementing a national carbon tax has stretched from the political corridors all the way to the Ontario Court of Appeal.…
The good news is the Constitution guarantees free trade among provinces. But do federal officials have the political will?
If there’s one near unanimous consensus among economists, it’s that free trade increases productivity and boosts growth. The flip side is that tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers generally reduce welfare. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund suggests Canada – on account of trade impediments between the provinces – is forgoing a four…
Regional reporting may come to suffer blindness similar to that in some Central Canadian media, to the disadvantage of provinces
The announced federal government subsidy for “trusted” media outlets risks undermining provincial jurisdictions. The federal lathering of a $595-million subsidy on “trusted” media over five years may encourage a regressive democratic step of making more news outlets more dependent on Ottawa, feeding a centralizing spirit. News outlets becoming openly partisan (or more partisan than some…
The bridge is a prime example of a private-public partnership gone right. Shifting the burden to taxpayers and non-users is simply unfair
The recent campaign to remove tolls on the Confederation Bridge is a popular policy topic where rhetoric has become misguided. Prince Edward Island Sen. Percy Downe has pushed to remove the toll from the bridge, while P.E.I. Premier Dennis King has pledged to work on lowering the toll on the island’s primary connection to the…
Canadians are gradually accepting Green politicians as worthy of support. That will drain yet more support from the federal Liberals
Voters in Prince Edward Island choose a new government today. They could end up making history in provincial politics and lead to a potential realignment on the federal scene. P.E.I. has only had Liberal and Conservative governments since it joined Confederation in 1873. Liberal Premier Wade MacLauchlan was consistently ahead in popular support from 2015,…
During the recent French and English language debates for the Conservative leadership, one of the two leading candidates accused the other of wanting to impose an oil pipeline on Quebec without its consent. Erin O’Toole, the Conservative MP for Durham, Ont., articulated his vision for a national energy corridor throughout Canada. He was then accused…
