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1. Contrasting the Budget Rules of Chrétien and Trudeau: Part 1

   With the federal deficit for 2020-21 now expected to easily exceed $110 billion and debt mounting, it’s worthwhile to compare the budget rules employed by the current government with those of the most fiscally successful government in ...

2. The case for free trade should not rely on mercantilism

   Writing in the Globe and Mail recently, Colin Robertson, vice-president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, makes a good case for a bold approach by Canada’s government if NAFTA is to be renegotiated. Unfortunately, he misses a ...

3. Trump’s trade trifecta will likely target China, Canada and beyond

   In my last post on this site, back in October, I stated that the odds that Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump in the November election were high. I went on to say: If your concern is trade between Canada and the United States, ...

4. Canada can’t dodge two ‘trade’ bullets shot from the U.S.

   At this writing, the odds that Hillary Clinton will defeat Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency are very high. If your concern is trade between Canada and the United States, Canada dodged a bullet. Donald Trump is hostile to trade, ...

5. Once again, professor, you can’t equate a tax and a price

   Professor Stephen Gordon of Laval University has responded to my earlier post and to an op-ed by National Post writer Peter Foster. Both Foster and I noted that there is an important distinction between a tax and a price. Professor ...

6. A carbon tax is not a 'price'

   Laval University economics professor Stephen Gordon had a recent op-ed in the National Post where he castigates small “c” and big “C” conservatives for their opposition to a carbon tax. I found two things interesting about his piece: (1) ...

7. Don’t worry about Canada becoming a ‘petrostate’

   In a recent Bloomberg article, economist Noah Smith warns Canada against becoming a “petrostate.” Petrostates, he writes, are countries that “depend on oil for large percentages of their exports.” He writes further: The problem with the ...

8. Supply management or cartel enforcement?

   What’s in a name? Supply management (French: Gestion de l'offre) is a catch-all term for policies that control the price of milk, cheese, eggs and poultry in Canada through marketing boards. It restricts the supply of these ...

9. Nobel Laureate economist on Canadian health care and the 'escape valve'

   The below is from a recent interview of U.S. Nobel Laureate economist Kenneth Arrow of Stanford University. Question: It does sound like you are strongly in favour a single-payer system, though. Last year you signed, along with 266 other ...

10. More government spending (on infrastructure or anything else) will make Canadians poorer

    As pretty much everyone knows, the price of oil has fallen dramatically. When the price of an item falls, consumers are better off and producers are worse off. But Canada is a net exporter of oil—it exports more oil than it imports. That ...