“The total tax bill, which includes all types of taxes, has increased by 1,886% since 1961,” concludes the Fraser Institute in its 2015 Canadian Consumer Tax Index. Even if the estimation is sound (a big “if”), the tax surge can only be true when inflation is totally ignored. It’s a…
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Every summer, the Fraser Institute releases a report pointing out the average family now spends more on taxes than food, clothing and shelter. But is it really a bad thing that as our economy grows we spend less of our income on basic survival and more on better education, better…
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What we don’t know about Canada might hurt us. That’s the title of a great article (with a cool gif!) from American economist and blogger Ben Casselman about what happened when the Harper Conservatives cancelled the mandatory long-form Census in June 2010 and replaced it with a voluntary National Household…
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Of all the outrageous things U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said this summer, trust the Fraser Institute to single out his only accurate observation, that “single payer [health care] works in Canada.” In an August 11 op-ed in National Newswatch, the institute’s Jason Clemens and Baccus Barua argue…
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Far be it from me to school the Prime Minister on the laws of supply and demand. He is, after all, the one who has extensively studied neo-liberal economics. But the Conservatives’ plan to increase what first-time homebuyers can pull from their RRSPs for a down payment – from a maximum…
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On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Harper repeated assertions that relaxing pot laws will lead to terrible, horrible things: “When you go down that route, marijuana becomes more readily available to children, more people become addicted to it and the health outcomes become worse.” The Conservative response is to escalate…
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What’s that they say about the first casualty of war? You can obviously say the same for Canadian elections. Linda McQuaig, the prominent Toronto NDP candidate and long-time economics journalist, is the latest to be caught in this political vortex. She found herself in a heap of trouble last week…
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Saskatchewan’s summer has been a snapshot of our climate future. Massive wildfires exploded across the north of the province, forcing the evacuation of over 13,000 people – dubbed by some as Saskatchewan’s first “climate change refugees.” Smoke from the fires was so intense it caused air quality warnings in Saskatoon…
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It is tempting to look past the details and welcome the Ontario government’s announcement of the details of the proposed ORPP as an important milestone on the way to a better retirement income system in Canada. And it is a milestone. Its importance has, ironically, been underlined by the bizarre…
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History is clear: The Harper government’s record on job creation is the weakest of Canada’s past nine prime ministers. But is it the best job creation record we could have right now, given how so many nations are struggling with the enduring impact of the 2008 global economic crisis? When…
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