Policy Options

My guess is that if we outlawed soda pop, we could produce a similar effect. Bootleg cola-from-a-still would flow like water; people would pay a high price for illegal...

In July 2001, Statistics Canada reported that drug offences increased by nine per cent in 2000, despite the ninth consecutive year of an overall decline in crime rates. With the...

When it comes to taxes, most of the pressure put on Ottawa takes the form of calls for “lower” taxes. Left in the shadows are the more tricky questions...

Let me begin by stating my conclusions and then try to substantiate them—the rhetorical equivalent of dealing cards face up. My essential conclusions are fourfold. First that Canada is,...

Surveys have long shown that, when asked, many Canadians—a plurality in many provinces at various times—say they believe their provincial government should exercise more power (see Figure 1 and Table...

“Public schools are local monopolies with few competitors,” says James Heckman, a co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Economics. “The problem in public education is primarily due to muted...

There can no longer be any doubt that lamenting Canada’s future has become a national pastime. Back in the mid-1960s, Canadian philosopher George Grant gave this mindset the most...

Economists have long known that the returns to research and development (R&D) are both private and social. The private returns accrue to the firm undertaking the R&D, mainly in the...

Electoral reform has emerged as the new panacea of the Canadian chattering classes. Several of Canada’s most pressing governance problems can apparently be solved, or at least eased, by reforming...

Laments are sometimes heard about the quantity of tax research in Canada being so much lower than in the United States. However, many types of tax research cannot be done...

My older brother’s enthusiasm for Tommy Douglas’ victory in Saskatchewan in 1944 helped make a CCFer of me. He subsequently moved to the right, at first almost imperceptibly but then...