Category Canada – Politics
How the federal government went from persistent surpluses to persistent deficits
Update: See this follow-up post, which corrects some mistakes made below. I've added comments pointing out which parts needed revision. In the early years of the millenium, the federal government ran what appeared to be an indestructible series of budgetary surpluses. No matter how many tax cuts were implemented, it ended each year with a […]
Fiscal Policy, the Environment, and How Not to Solve Policy Problems
Canada and by extension the Canadian government faces a number of challenges. There are two in particular I find fascinating:
Helmer for the Defense: The Liberals and the CIT
In CIT Cuts: The Waiting Until We Can Afford It Argument I characterise the Liberal position on the corporate income tax as incoherent at best and advocating counter-cyclical tax policy at worst. My very good friend and dodgeball teammate Jesse Helmer has an excellent defense of the Liberal position. In the interest of fairness, I thought you […]
When is a ban a subsidy?
In the United States, surrogate mothers receive fees of about $20,000 to $25,000 for their services. In Canada, the U.K., Australia and a number of other countries, commercial surrogacy is outlawed, but surrogates are compensated for expenses, for example, clothing, food, prenatal vitamins, childcare, travel costs, lost wages, medications, medical bills, etc. In the U.K., reported expenses range […]
Surrogate motherhood: the case for commodification
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have one. So do Elton John and David Furnish, and that woman in the New York Times. They all have children borne by surrogate mothers. In Canada, as in the UK, Australia, France and several other countries, it is illegal to pay surrogate mothers for anything more than their expenses — […]
Statistics Canada under siege
If there's one thing that has prevented me from despairing completely about the débâcle that is and will be the 2011 census, it's been my faith in the professionalism and expertise of the people who work at Statistics Canada. Their present political masters may be deaf to reason, but this is only a temporary state […]
Why is Canadian GDP Growth Higher Under Liberal Governments?
Canadian economic growth is about two percentage points higher under Liberal governments. At least, that's what my colleagues Stephen Ferris and Marcel Voia found in their recent article in the Canadian Journal of Economics (earlier ungated version here). This is a large impact. For example, if the economy was growing at 1 percent under a Conservative government, […]
Organic Milk and Japanese Cars
In the Spring of 2009, the Dairy Farmers of Canada launched the "100% Canadian milk campaign." Products displaying the logo shown on the right are guaranteed to be made with 100% Canadian milk. I'll admit it. As someone who lived through the British BSE outbreak of the 1980s, I'm slightly paranoid about milk safety. I'm […]
Popular support for increased inequality?
One part of Canada's tax-transfer system increases inequality of wealth. That's not an unfortunate side-effect of the policy; it is deliberately designed that way. It would be very easy to design it differently so that it did not increase inequality.
“I’m a corporation and so’s my wife.”
"Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges." Traditional British common law held that women and men were inherently unequal. Today, the equality of men and women is enshrined in the Canadian constitution, and we face a different legal challenge: Corporations are persons in […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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