Search

Search results

1. William Watson: Trying to digest 159 ways to improve a country

   I spent seven hours Wednesday confined with several hundred other columnists, reporters, financial analysts, policy wonks, cameramen, video editors, sound engineers and so on at the federal government’s annual budget lock-up. You line up ...

2. Government policies threaten economic freedom in Canada

   Appeared in the National Post, September 15, 2016 Canada ranks a remarkable fifth in the world in economic freedom, just behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Switzerland. The “land of the maple leaf” is far ahead of our southern neighbour, ...

3. Why waste a budget? Trudeau should learn from Chretien and Martin

   Appeared in National Newswatch, March 18, 2016 As Prime Minister Trudeau delivers his first budget next week, one that reportedly contains a deficit in excess of $30 billion, his government may want to consider the lessons learned by former Prime Minister ...

4. End of the Chretien Consensus in Canada?

   Appeared in the Financial Post, November 24, 2015 Canada enjoyed an economic and fiscal renaissance starting in the mid-1990s that lasted more than a decade. The boom was rooted in sound fiscal policy (balanced budgets, focused spending, and tax ...

5. Cheer up, western prosperity will return

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald As everyone from the Manitoba-Ontario border to Tofino knows, the local and provincial economies, which depend on resource extraction, have slowed. So this is a critical time to get some perspective on the past. If ...

6. France’s failed tax and spend experiment

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald When French President Francois Hollande visited Canada recently, one hopes the Gallic leader looked around. If he did, he would have noticed a stark difference in the economic opportunities between the two countries with the ...

7. Ontario's financial woes a problem for all of Canada

   Appeared in the Waterloo Region Record Lost in the current flurry of Ontario’s election campaign is the one key issue facing the province, and indeed all of Canada: Ontario’s laggard economic performance is dragging down the national economy. Due to the ...

8. Canadian Government Debt 2014

   With Canadian governments having returned to deficit-financed spending, the growth in direct government debt has re-emerged as a serious public policy issue in Canada. The net direct debt of all three levels of government increased from $872.2 billion to ...

9. Fewer gimmicks, more transparency needed in Ottawa

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, Winnipeg Free Press, Waterloo Region Record, and Guelph Mercury No normal person pays close attention to who is "in" or "out" as finance minister, and that's a good ...

10. Your share of Canadian government debt: more than $34,000

    Appeared in the Truro Daily News and New Glasgow Daily News When Canada’s premiers met recently in Halifax, talks of a possible pipeline to move oil from Alberta to eastern Canada dominated national headlines. There was also mention of talks about trade, ...