Published in the Financial Post.
Just when the Americans have elected an aggressive president and just before the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (the old NAFTA) is due for re-negotiation, the Liberal government, with all-party agreement, supports an egregiously protectionist piece of legislation that will only make Canada’s political problems with the Trump administration that much worse.
As a self-inflicted injury, little surpasses Bill C-282, a Bloc Québécois member’s private bill that sailed through the House of Commons last year. The bill, helped along by the well-financed dairy lobby, would embed Canada’s supply management system in law, prohibiting any trade agreement from allowing as much as one additional gram…
Published in The Globe and Mail.
Canadian governments are loudly zealous about protecting us from potentially addictive stuff that could hurt our physical and mental health – think of junk food, booze and other drugs, or misinformation and other online “harms.” Yet they themselves are pushing fiscal junk. The federal government’s latest – a goods and services tax holiday from mid-December to mid-February, 2025, and a $250 handout to everyone with earned income under $150,000 – is yet another feel-good move that undermines our fiscal and economic health.
As with the Ontario government’s recent pledge of a $200 handout for its taxpayers, one big question is: Will the bribe buy the government a bounce in the polls? If…
Published in the Financial Post.
Immigration targets slashed! Drastic reduction in temporary residents. Canada to reduce new immigration by 21 per cent.
Headlines like these dominated the news after Ottawa announced it was reducing Canada’s intake of permanent residents by 21 per cent over the next three years, alongside new measures to bring the population of temporary immigrants into line with goals for it.
But the story really depends on the angle.
Yes, Canada’s new targets are much lower than both recent inflows and the previous official targets of 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025 and 2026. And, yes, Ottawa also plans to reduce the population share of temporary residents to five per cent by early 2027…
