Category Canada – Politics
The GST and Lord Voldemort
I can't – and won't – count the times where I've pointed out that increasing the GST is probably the best way of raising revenues to deal with a federal structural deficit whose size is almost exactly equal to the revenues foregone by the 2 points the Conservatives cut from the GST. And I have […]
Does the construction industry suffer false consciousness?
According to research carried out by Professor Jack Mintz of University of Calgary, the construction industry stood to gain enormously from Ontario's adoption of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST): In 2009, the business tax structure was heavily biased against investments in construction (42.2%) and services… By 2018, however, Ontario’s business tax structure will be not only […]
Why Statistics Canada oversamples Newfoundland
When playing around with some data the other day, I noticed something odd. I was trying to figure out where my respondents lived, so I typed "tab PROV" and was surprised to see that about four percent lived in Newfoundland. That's the number in the distribution of respondents column in the table below. Distribution of […]
Stand up against the penny
At this year's American Economics Association humour session, stand-up economist Yoram Bauman launched a new campaign: to end the penny – a subject discussed on this blog before. Bauman has a novel suggestion on how to eliminate the penny: promote it. Make each penny worth five cents. Allow people to trade in 20 pennies for […]
The arithmetic of household debt
The interest rate on your mortgage is three percent. If the interest rate increases one percentage point, the interest component of your monthly mortgage payments will increase by approximately: a. 1 percent b. 10 percent c. 25 percent d. 33 percent e. None of the above.
The political economy of porkbarrel politics
The headline in the Ottawa Citizen proclaimed "Tory ridings won more tourism grants." In ridings currently held by Canada's governing Conservative party, 3/4 of requests for tourism grants were approved. In other ridings, just half of requests were. Now, Conservative ridings tend to be rural and suburban ridings, while non-Conservative ridings are more likely to […]
The NDP’s misdiagnosis
A couple of weeks ago, the NDP suggested removing the GST from heating bills, and I bemoaned the idea as just another example of a policy designed to fit a communications strategy instead of the other way around. I was hoping that the proposal would do the decent thing and go away quietly, but the […]
This is why we can’t have nice things
A disconcerting trend is establishing itself in Canadian politics. Political parties are showing essentially no interest in the merits of a policy proposal beyond its potential as an element of some shrewd communications strategy.
Should every child in Ontario have the right to attend a Catholic school?
Every child in Canada has the right to attend a free, government funded public school. But some schools are better than others. And the range of choices available to children varies widely – and arbitrarily – across the country.
The census, evidence-based policy analysis and a reversal of roles
One of the least edifying aspects of the census debacle is the government's spin to the effect that that the only people who oppose its decision to make the long form voluntary are 'left-wingers', so their concerns can therefore be dismissed out of hand. One version of this meme takes the form of the argument […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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