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  • Idea Factory

    Hennessy’s Index: A number is never just a number Hennessy’s Index is a monthly listing of numbers, written by the CCPA’s Trish Hennessy, about Canada and its place in the world. For other months, visit: http://policyalternatives.ca/index Bike Superhighway Like the one they built in Copenhagen: 11 miles of paved bike…

  • “Right to Work” Laws and Jobs

    Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak claims that passage of an anti union “right to work” (RTW) law (making mandatory union dues illegal) would create jobs, especially in hard-hit manufacturing. With companies like Caterpillar moving to get ever cheaper labour, it seems semi plausible that anti union laws might attract footloose…

  • Killer Pensions

    Pension funds force Canadians to invest in war industries In the microcosm of our daily lives, many Canadians make politically-conscious choices about what to buy. Whether it’s drinking fair trade tea or coffee, using eco-friendly cleaning products, eating locally-produced food, avoiding clothes made in sweatshops, or refusing to buy war-toys…

  • Climate Justice Project

    Subsidizing dirty industries with expensive clean electricity is a recipe for major rate hikes

    Premier Clark’s recent decision to cap the BC Hydro rate increases next year may have ratepayers breathing a sigh of relief. But it’s a short term fix that will only delay addressing the major financial challenges now facing our Crown utility. Once the 2013 election is over, whoever forms BC’s…

  • Clean electricity, conservation and a zero-carbon future

    Today we released a new Climate Justice Project report, Clean Electricity, Conservation and Climate Justice in BC: Meeting our energy needs in a zero-carbon future, co-authored by John Calvert and myself. The report is central to the vision we have been developing of a zero-carbon BC, with a focus on the need…

  • Opting Out of Union Dues

    Murray Mandryk’s excellent column today saves me the trouble of writing a lengthy blog post on the Saskatchewan government’s recent musings about labour legislation. From an economic perspective, it’s worth noting that enabling unionized workers to opt out of paying union dues would create a classic free-rider problem. Indeed, Wikipedia’s article on this topic uses collective…

  • Cue the Bleeding Heart Response from SunMedia

    I know it’s not considered “politically correct” to talk about this. But I, for one, am sick of these welfare types taking my hard-earned money and spending it on whatever they please. I mean, do they really need a membership at the Embassy Club? It doesn’t make them look so…

  • The Future of Health Care

    Medicare must be preserved and made truly comprehensive There are two fundamentally competing visions that seek to shape the next stage of health care in Canada. One view, based on the premise that health care is a commodity, believes that markets should determine who gets care, when, and how. This…

  • It’s up to the Senate to stop the Crime Bill

    The omnibus crime bill passed the House of Commons handily, thanks to the Conservative majority and the invocation of closure and time limits throughout the process. It is now over to the Upper House to hear evidence and make a decision about Bill C-10. For the second time in living…

  • Fast Facts: “Housing” that will lead to a need for more social housing

    After years of complaining that Canada is the only G-8 country without a National Housing Strategy, housing advocates are finally getting their way. The federal government is passing Bill C-10, the Omnibus Crime Bill, that will effectively house people, and especially people with a mental illness who engage in crimes…

  • Brad Wall’s Crime Problem

    In opposition to the Conservative’s transformational C-10 omnibus crime bill, Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland are refusing to take on the costs associated with the bill. British Columbia and Manitoba are similarly concerned about the costs of the federal legislation, asking for a full-accounting of the bill’s provisions and cost-sharing agreements with the federal government.…

  • Family Values and Budget Cuts

    Once again, in the middle of summer, the anti-government government has unleashed more anti-policy policy via a compliant Statistics Canada. Who needs data when you’ve got family values? The Harper team knows what you need. (Hint: tax cuts. Oops! Not for you sister, if you’re a single mom.) The Globe and…