Category Canada – Politics
Voters’ economic acumen underestimated
The Conservatives’ promise to reduce the GST to 6% put economists once again in the painful position of witnessing economic sensibility being sacrificed for electoral gain. ‘Why’, we asked ourselves, ‘is bad economics good politics?’ Maybe it isn’t. From this morning’s Globe and Mail: Voters cool to GST cut, Tories warned: The GST cut at […]
Live blogging from the NDP Convention
So here I am in the corridor at the NDP convention. For some reason, the network to which I’m connected doesn’t reach into the main room itself, so this will have to do. I’ll be updating this post as the day goes on.
Observing the NDP
The New Democratic Party of Canada is holding their biennial convention here in Quebec City this weekend. In the last election, the NDP made some impressive strides in its quest to gain credibility in economic matters, so I’ve decided to attend as an observer in order to see if they stay on track. My first […]
Why would unions oppose a basic income?
The Berkeley Electronic Press has a new journal: Basic Income Studies. The Basic Income – also known as the Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) in Canada – is a proposal that I’m very much favourably disposed to, even though I’m not familiar with all of the technical details. I took a look at its inaugural issue, […]
Equity and Quebec’s daycare program
One of the Conservatives' election campaign promises was to provide financial support to parents directly, to the tune of $1,200 per child. Progressive-minded commentators have condemned this policy in no uncertain terms; their preferred model runs more along the lines of the Quebec government's $7/day (formerly $5/day) program. Maybe it shouldn't. At the meetings of […]
Federalism and the race to the bottom
Yesterday’s headline in the Globe and Mail provides a nice segue from my post on ethnic diversity and the Nordic model to how Canada’s federal structure could be a useful tool in generating the sort of public consensus that the Nordic model requires. Unfortunately for me, the source of the headline is somewhat problematic: Empower […]
Ethnic diversity and the Nordic model
There seems to be a consensus of opinion on the Nordic model around two points: It’s admirable. It can’t be exported to countries that aren’t as small and ethnically homogeneous as the Nordic countries. In a recent interview in the New Perspectives Quarterly (h/t to New Economist’s very helpful series on the Nordic model), Milton […]
What will Conservative economic policy look like?
Ordinarily, the answer to this question would be found by taking the trouble to read the platform upon which the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) was elected. I choose not to do so, for two reasons: It won’t be long (especially if the 2005:4 US GDP numbers really do signify a slowdown over the next […]
The NDP moves up the learning curve
Ever since it was founded in 1961, the federal wing of the New Democratic Party has been trying to figure out a way to break out of its nasty, Catch-22 trap: Many/most voters won’t consider it to be a credible alternative until it wins an election and gets some experience in government. It can’t get […]
The Liberal legacy
Before Christmas, I shared the general opinion that the upcoming federal election would produce approximately the same result as the last one: a Liberal minority that might or might not be large enough to govern with the support of the NDP. But events since Christmas suggest that the Liberals – who have been in power […]
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