Monthly Archives: March 2011
The recovery picks up speed
Today's GDP numbers are a happy contrast to the sort of numbers we were seeing six months ago: Recent data from the US are also encouraging. The recession is over, and the end of the recovery is getting closer.
Number of Possible Debates Between Harper and Ignatieff
On Twitter, Andrew Potter asked the (presumably rhetorical) question: Has anyone done the math on "anytime, anyplace"? How many potential debates is that? A brazillion? And Harper can't make one? Although Andrew probably wasn't looking for a 'real' answer, I thought I'd try to give him one. Now, if we use a loose definition of […]
Twittometer
The number of twitter followers for possible future Prime Ministers of Canada: As of 12 March 2011: @M_Ignatieff 61,415; @pmharper 98,164; @jacklayton 57,824; @gillesduceppe 44,550; @elizabethmay 11,447. As of 30 March 2011: @M_Ignatieff 74,988; @pmharper 113,192; @jacklayton 68,622; @gillesduceppe 49,637; @elizabethmay 15,390. Elizabeth May has experienced the largest percentage increase in the number of followers, 34 percent, followed by Michael Ignatieff at 22 percent. […]
Tax unfairness or income unfairness?
The Conservative Party of Canada has announced that, if elected, they would allow families to "share up to $50,000 of their household income for federal tax purposes." (This tax change would be implemented in about four years time.) In tax lingo, this means income splitting. A family where one person has an income of $110,000 […]
Don’t eat the marshmallow
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery" – Mr. Micawber in Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield" Canadians are increasingly indebted. 31% of us struggle to make our bills and payments. We're pretty clueless when it comes to retirement – just 40% […]
Ontario’s Public Finances: A Fiscal Primer
With Ontario set to deliver its own budget on Tuesday March 29th, it is useful to provide a perspective on the province's finances given that it is Canada’s most populous province and largest provincial economy. Ontario faces some tough fiscal decision making over the next few years given a set of deteriorating public finances and […]
Public Policy and Nichols’ Law of Catcher Defense
A post where I disagree slightly with a WCI colleague. There is some hesitation here – not because I am afraid to publicly disagree with a colleague, rather it is because she's smarter than I am and therefore I am not entirely convinced I am correct.
GDP & Population Shares, Natural Resources & Prosperity: A National Comparison
Looking at only one province’s share of GDP and population over time is probably not enough given the immeasurable majesty of the Canadian federation. It is time to expand the analysis to take all the other provinces into account to gain insight on the evolution of the Canadian economy.
The preponed government spending multiplier may exceed one
From very casual observation, I get the sense that a lot of extra government spending in the last couple of years was to build stuff that would have been built anyway. They just built it a bit earlier. It was preponed government spending. Am I right? Anyway, I'm going to assume I'm right, because it […]
Dumb men commercials
Dumb men commercials. Ads featuring men who can't cook. Men who are too stupid to understand how casinos work. And, especially, dumb white men, like the oldsters in the TD ad or the man with "tax pain" in the H&R Block commercial. There's enough stupid men commercials to inspire a blog dedicated entirely to the subject. Why are these ads so pervasive?
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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