In my column this week for the Globe’s Economy Lab (in the ROB) I talk about the political, economic and moral consequences of secession votes under poorly designed rules as…
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Back from my summer break my first column of the season for the Ottawa Citizen asks whether Western politicians aren’t whistling past the graveyard when they so blithely assert that…
Regular visitors to this site will know I am a vociferous critic of the concept of social licence. I’ll be in Calgary on Wednesday, October 8th to speak on a…
My friend and mentor, Purdy Crawford, a giant of the Canadian legal and business world, passed away yesterday. His death marks the passing not just of a man and a…
In my latest column for the Economy Lab feature of the Globe and Mail, I take issue with the journalists who think the only issue that matters with internal barriers…
The news that the Senate is about to follow the Commons in allowing television (a mere 37 years later — that’s sober second thought for you!) brought back memories of…
Earlier this year the proponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline, Enbridge, received conditional approval from the federal government to proceed to the next stage with their project. Back in June…
A C.D. Howe paper recently called for Ottawa to keep borrowing and spending up to .5% of GDP rather than to balance the books as Finance Minister Oliver plans to…
The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently released a paper explaining why it doesn’t actually cost the government anything when civil servants take sick leave. His conclusion was, IMHO, so bizarre that…
In my latest column for the ROB’s Economy Lab feature (in the Globe), I regale readers with the story of what happened when a bureaucrat came into the café my…