This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Canadian Labour Congress calls out Jim Flaherty for stalling on his promise to work on boosting the Canada Pension Plan. Meanwhile, in attempting to keep profits flowing to the financial sector, several Fraser Institute drones find that increased CPP contributions…substantially increase
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The Progressive Economics Forum: The CFIB’s Municipal Manipulations
After analyzing “research reports” issued by the Fraser Institute or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), I usually end up shaking my head in disbelief. Do they really need to so grossly distort and manipulate the statistics to make their arguments? The answer is invariably “yes”. That’s because the
Continue readingLeft Over: How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Pharma….?
Nadeem Esmail Director, Health Policy Studies, The Fraser Institute Bulk Buying Pharmaceuticals Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be Posted: 05/24/2013 5:30 pm OOOHHHH….a warning from a minion of the Fraser Institute..couldn’t be his Big Pharma puppeteers steering him into this scary-sounding piffle…now, could it?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On distortions
Yes, there’s generally reason to be skeptical of corporate apologists trying to claim a populist, anti-corporate-welfare mantle while pushing for business to contribute less and less to society as a whole. But even if we weren’t going to hold that skepticism against the Fraser Institute’s Mark Milke, there are two
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Albertans want election-spending-limit law but are unlikely to get one from Redford PCs
Generous corporate donor drops off cash at Tory headquarters. Actual donors, who may not be exactly as illustrated, will be determined later. Below: Parkland Institute researcher Trevor Harrison and Tory Human Services Minister Dave Hancock. It’s a conundrum! What should Alberta’s Tories do? A study by the University of Alberta’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom writes that yesterday’s minor tinkering aside, the goal of the Cons’ temporary foreign worker program is still to drive down Canadian wages. And Miles Corak argues that the resulting distortion of employment markets shouldn’t be any more acceptable to a libertarian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Andrew Simms and Stephen Reid note that the corporatist dogma that everything is done more efficiently in the private sector has no apparent basis in reality: The myth of private sector superiority says that the private sector is efficient and dynamic, the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Are average Canadians paying too much in taxes?
On April 23, the Fraser Institute released the annual update of their misleading Consumer Tax Index report. The piece is meant to feed the anti-tax sentiment with numbers sprinkled liberally for their shock value instead of providing any meaningful analysis. Here are some of the main flaws with the report’s
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Celebrating Public Service
Public servants celebrating the enrolment of 5 million citizens in the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan (1959, Archives of Ontario) Notes for talk at Public Policy Forum Dinner, April 11, 2013 I am delighted to be here with family, friends and colleagues this evening – an evening that can only be
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Celebrating Public Service
Public servants celebrating the enrolment of 5 million citizens in the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan (1959, Archives of Ontario) Notes for talk at Public Policy Forum Dinner, April 11, 2013 I am delighted to be here with family, friends and colleagues this evening – an evening that can only be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom adds another piece to the picture showing the Cons’ efforts to shift both jobs and wealth offshore, pointing out that lax visa rules have only encouraged RBC-style outsourcing schemes. Craig McInnes recognizes that a cheap, low-rights worker strategy is a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Frances Russell weighs in on the Cons’ continued contempt for democracy: The Conservatives under Stephen Harper are running an effective dictatorship. They believe they are quite within their rights to muzzle Parliament, gag civil servants, use taxpayer money for blatant political self-promotion, stand
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Fraser Institute Sunshine List
On Monday, Andrew wrote that we need a Bay Street sunshine list. Today, we got something almost as good: a Fraser Institute sunshine list, courtesy of US tax filings and The Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor. This piece is a great counterpoint to the Fraser Institute’s recent attack on public-sector salaries.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Stephen Hume rightly mocks the Fraser Institute for using its tax-exempt status to whine about individuals who don’t earn enough to pay income taxes. But I’ll take the opportunity to reiterate a point I’ve made before: progressive governments in particular will do far
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Canadian Taxpayer Federation Exposed! In running for ‘Turfy Award’
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger You have to hand it to the ‘Right Wing Nuts.’ when. The smallest gaggle of true believers seem able to attracting funding and dispense their gospel broadly throughout the MSM without a murmur of questioning, measuring or guaging its’ accuracy or value. In Canada we are
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Let’s Vote For Better Schools! BCTF TV Advertising Is Pathetic!
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger I have watched the BCTF campaign ads over the years. They squander hundreds of thousands of dollars on some really well produced ads and then choke and say stupid things like ‘Vote for Education’ or ‘Vote for Smaller classrooms.” The BCTF’s latest is ‘Let’s Vote for Better
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Molly Ball writes about the false assumptions underlying far too much political discussion – with one looming as particularly significant for Canadian purposes: 5. Campaign ads really, really, really don’t make much difference. In this part of the paper, Fiorina’s exasperation becomes
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Tales from the Mouth of the Fraser: Climate Change Denial Edition
Some colleagues at the US NGO Global Exchange tipped me off to some sneaky data doctoring done by the Fraser Institute on climate change. The source is Understanding Climate Change: Lesson Plans for the Classroom, a resource for high school teachers. The particular graph is on page 69 (first page if
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – In response to the Fraser Institute’s latest attempt to foment panic (to be used as an excuse to attack public programs and hand yet more free money to corporations), Trish Hennessy explains the province’s choices in terms anybody should be able to understand:
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The 10% Delusion: Fraser Institute gins up fake facts about Alberta public sector pay
Women clerical workers, as the Fraser Institute would like to see them. The Fraser Institute didn’t write the book “How to Lie With Statistics,” a guy named Darrell Huff did, but they might as well have! You’ve got to have a little respect for the tireless political lobbyists at the
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