Jan 21 2020 — Vincent Geloso — Fraser Institute — In debates about inequality, some people—including some economists—claim that the salaries and compensation of chief executive officers (CEOs) are not linked to performance. Thus, they don’t really earn their money. This claim, repeated ad nauseam in recent years, is misleading to say the least. As noted in my recent study published by the Fraser Institute, […]
Jan 16 2020 — Zach Paikin — Global Brief — Following the election of Donald Trump to the White House, Canada’s then newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland made a commitment to defending the “rules-based international order” (RBIO) one of the staples of her tenure. The meaning of this term, however, remains a matter of interpretation. Against the backdrop of resurgent great power rivalry […]
Jan 15 2020 — The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the rules-based trading system face an existential threat from the Donald J. Trump administration’s blockade on appointments to the WTO’s top court—the Appellate Body. As of December 2019, the Appellate Body had too few members to decide cases, leaving pending appeals in limbo and threatening to turn every future […]
Jan 6 2020 — Macdonald-Laurier Institute — With the new Cabinet in place, the most important foreign affairs issue facing the federal government is the management of our relations with China. China’s detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and the execution court rulings for Robert Schellenberg and Fan Wei on drug charges, in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng […]
Jan 5 2020 — Jason Clemens , Jake Fuss and Tegan Hill — Fraser Institute — As expected, Finance Minister Bill Morneau recently confirmed the federal government’s intention to reduce personal income taxes for everyone except “higher-income earners.” With total taxes (federal, provincial and local) consuming 44.7 per cent of the average family’s income in 2019, it’s easy to see why Canadians want tax relief. The problem is the type of […]
Jan 1 2020 — Rick Smith — Broadbent Institute — From a progressive point of view, the last days of the year were…less than ideal. Between Conservative re-election and Brexit in the UK, climate change-linked fires in Australia and a failure of global leadership at the Madrid climate change conference, Jason Kenney and his minions on a rampage and Trump and more Trump, I’m not […]
Dec 30 2019 — Dan Kraus — Nature Conservancy of Canada — Here are 10 nature conservation highlights that provide evidence for hope. Examples that, if amplified, if repeated and if built upon, will help shape the Canada and world we need in the coming decade. Citizen science: Many people now have one of the most power scientific instruments ever invented: their cell phone. Apps such as […]
Dec 28 2019 — Charles Burton — Macdonald-Laurier Institute — Some Canadian commentators have approvingly quoted a Huawei Canada spokesman’s recent claims that, “We’re not villains in an espionage thriller. We’re a telecom network equipment provider.” If it was only so simple. Huawei might not be a villain in a Bond novel, but it is certainly not just a normal telecom network equipment provider. If […]
Dec 19 2019 — Macdonald-Laurier Institute — Money laundering is finally being acknowledged as a serious and growing problem in Canada. And policy-makers are also beginning to understand that this is not victimless crime. Financial crime drives gun violence, property prices, the opioid crisis, institutional corruption, and more. So how does Canada fare when it comes to combatting financial crime? And what […]
Dec 18 2019 — Canadian Global Affairs Institute — The art of war has changed considerably since the end of the Second World War. In the last 15 years, the centre of gravity has slowly shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The West is increasingly being destabilized. Hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks have become increasingly effective alternatives to both hard and soft power. Russia […]
Dec 17 2019 — Policy Options — Canada’s international development spending is not as generous as we might think, especially when compared with spending by other advanced economies. Proponents of increasing our official development assistance (ODA) point to a widely accepted metric — the ratio of ODA to gross national income (GNI) — to highlight what they see as the Canadian government’s […]
Dec 4 2019 — Derek J. Allison — Fraser Institute — Canada’s 15-year-old students continue to do well on the gold standard of academic testing, but with some concerns. This week, the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA), which has randomly tested students worldwide every three years since 2000, released its latest results from reading, math and science tests completed by some half-a-million students in 79 […]
Nov 22 2019 — Canadian Global Affairs Institute — A joint Policy Paper from The School of Public Policy and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Most Canadians probably understand that NORAD — the North American Aerospace Defense Command — is an operational military alliance between the U.S. and Canada that has been protecting the two countries from aerial attack and invasion since the Cold […]
Nov 19 2019 — Pierre Desrochers — Fraser Institute — Across Ontario, “local food” activists continue to promote the economic, social and environmental virtues of small local alternative farms, community gardens, backyard henhouses and older, less-efficient and more expensive ways to produce food. In response, the Ontario government—directly or through organizations such as Foodland Ontario, the Greenbelt Fund and the Trillium Foundation—supports several local food […]
Nov 17 2019 — Karen Myers and Kelly Pasolli — Ontario 360 Project — Last week’s Fall Economic Statement from the Ontario government highlighted the province’s efforts to transform its skills-training regime. The policy and programming changes are sweeping including consolidating 100s of employment service contracts into a small number of regional arrangements. It’s still too early to say whether the redesign will produce better outcomes for Ontarians. But […]