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1. Talks of a Trudeau mandate ignore reality and history

   Appeared in the Edmonton Sun, October 30, 2019 Based on the prime minister’s speech on election night and the ensuing media coverage, one might assume that the new minority Liberal government has a mandate to govern based on their campaign platform. This ...

2. William Watson: What’s new should be what’s news in a fiscal update

   When journalists are locked up for a budget or fiscal update—I know, I know, we should just leave them there. When they are off in isolation the two or three hours they’re electronically out of touch is enough time to at least thumb ...

3. Canada’s federal government failing its own test

   The federal government has gone to great lengths to highlight that its fiscal policies will lead to significant improvements in the growth prospects for the Canadian economy. For example, when Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau ...

4. National carbon price will likely raise costs for Canadians, damage overall economy

   Yesterday the Liberal government revealed plans to impose a national carbon price on the provinces, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan requires provinces to adopt a carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme. There is, in ...

5. Canada’s disappointing second quarter economic performance spotlights need for proven policies

   Statistics Canada released some disappointing data yesterday on the performance of the Canadian economy. According to the agency, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is the value of all the goods and services produced in ...

6. Why is Canada’s federal government running a deficit?

   Canada’s federal government has embarked on a path of substantial deficit financing with no concrete target laid out of when the budget might be expected to balance. The deficit will be $5.4 billion in 2015-16, $29.4 billion in 2016-17, ...

7. Why did the planned surplus in 2015/16 turn to deficit? Higher federal spending

   With much of the focus on last week’s federal budget being on the $29.4 billion deficit expected in 2016/17, an important takeaway that largely flew under the media radar is what caused the surplus that the former government had planned ...

8. William Watson: It’s not clear Canadians want to soak the rich to pay for bigger government

   Another week, another interview about my new book, The Inequality Trap: Fighting Capitalism Instead of Poverty, and another couple of hours spent thinking how I could have answered the questions better. It must be nice to be a politician ...