Policy Options

My text is taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew, which tells the familiar story of Pontius Pilate delivering a carpenter from Nazareth into the hands of first century...

The starting point for knowledge is mystery. Everything we now know started as a mystery in which we couldn’t even discern the variables that mattered, and therefore had no...

An independent Scotland will be able to decide our currency and the arrangements for monetary policy. Four currency options were examined by the Fiscal Commission —  the continued use...

October 24, 2013 We British seem to be a bit embarrassed about revolution, like the passion is uncouth or that some tea might get spilled on our cuffs in...

At a state banquet for the new Lord Mayor on Monday, David Cameron gave a speech about his commitment to the cause of permanent austerity. He stood up to...

There are some people who seem to think that the way you reduce the cost of living in this country is for the state to spend more and more...

In the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Civil case no. 13-CV-1856 November 25, 2013 1. This action arises from the pathological and debilitating effects of...

The provocative title of David Seymour’s recent article in Policy Options (November-December 2013) was ”Urban planners vs. democracy.”  This title exposed the flawed logic of his broadside against what...

The debate surrounding the proposed Charter of Quebec values continues apace. The most controversial part of the PQ government’s plan is the measure that would prohibit employees in the...

The national conversation over natural resource development often seems dominated by the concept of social licence, the notion that industry needs public support before it can get down to...

“Buy my Abenomics!” was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s exhortation from the podium of the New York Stock Exchange one day last September. His message to Wall Street: Japan...

We live with a plethora of “epidemics” — obesity, diabetes, autism, prostate cancer, breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, child abuse, crime, and terrorism, to name a few. Among this multiplication of catastrophes,...

The federal-provincial battle over Ottawa’s ambitious push to overhaul job training programs has pushed the “skills shortage” agenda, once an arcane point of largely academic discussion among economists, to...

In 1589, clergyman William Lee invented the stocking-frame knitting machine. The hand-operated mechanism used multiple needles designed to relieve workers  —   mostly women  —  from the drudgery of spinning and...

Within the next 10 to 20 years, the day will come when you awake and, to get ready for work, don clothes designed not by large subcontractors for the...

We see  —  mostly  —  as wearing a white hat. Many of us associate it with advances that make our lives more fun and efficient, with the prospect that there may...

If geoengineering can protect the vulnerable and the natural environment, why then is there such strong opposition to geoengineering from the political left? Since the 1960s, the environmental left...

What a world we live in. Billions of people across the planet struggle to live on a few dollars per day, without any sign that their economic situation might...

We love our gadgets. Try disconnecting from your smartphone (the meaning of “phone” no longer has any resemblance to its meaning just a blink in time ago) and see...

The New Year brings an inevitable flood of fitness and diet fads, a great slosh of suggestions on how to do things — lose weight and get fit v that...

Le 13 novembre, à Doha, au Qatar, l’Association internationale de la sécurité sociale remettait son tout premier prix «pour une contribution exceptionnelle à la sécurité sociale» au gouvernement brésilien,...

Electric cars have existed since the late 19th century. After being cast aside for the internal combustion engine, they have been a staple of futuristic thinking ever since. But...

We tend to see technology as a force for good. From the discovery of how to make fire through advances in agriculture, industry and leisure, technology has mostly served...