The Minimum Wage from first principles
The minimum wage, like most government policies, is first and foremost a form of wealth distribution. There are winners and losers from the distribution. The biggest group of winners is…
bazie
Peter MacKay’s wife doesn’t help his – or our – cause
The latest flap over sexist comments from Justice Minister Peter Mackay came about when a Mother’s and Father’s Day emails from Peter Mackay to his staff were leaked to the…
Canada and the US moving in opposite directions in online spying
The juxtaposition of these two stories on top of each other in my news feed yesterday was priceless: 1) Poll: Massive 73% majority of Canadians are opposed to Peter MacKay’s…
I can’t blame the NDP for the election call
Despite being a nonpartisan lefty, during the campaign I wasn’t particularly kind to the NDP. I derided the choice to call an election as a gamble that risked either a…
The effect on strategic voting of Wynne ruling out a coalition
Unfortunately, for those of us who think that some form of Liberal-NDP election deal or coalition would be vastly superior to the PCs forming a government with the largest minority,…
The NDP email on "strategic voting" is largely nonsense
The NDP has sent several emails to supporters before and during the campaign premised on the idea that the best way to stop the Conservatives is to vote for the…
Riding by riding strategic voting in the 2014 Ontario Election
I’ve always advocated for strategic voting on this blog where we vote based on promoting certain goals given the constraints of both our local riding and the broader election. This…
Game theory and corporate tax rates: the Ontario Liberals are almost certainly wrong
I don’t know what the optimal corporate tax rate is. I suspect neither does anyone. I believe there is reasonable evidence out there that given the kinds of goals and…
Andrew Coyne assures us "Hudak’s bogus plan is no reason not to vote for him"
The media reaction to Hudak’s 8 fold screwup in his Million 75,000 Jobs Plan has been almost as ridiculous as the mistake in the plan itself. I already wrote about…
Media stenography: The CBC can’t bring itself to call Hudak’s plan what it is
If you haven’t heard, Hudak’s so called Million Jobs plan is more like a 75,000 jobs plan, based on an obvious mistake that meant most of his numbers were multiplied…
2014 Ontario Election: Much to lose, little to gain for the NDP
I once wrote about what I called the “n-party problem”, how movements of various parties on a political spectrum is much more complicated when n, the number of political parties,…
The best case view of the NDP platform
NDP candidate Rosario Marchese cuts through a lot of spin to defend a frank and real representation of the NDP’s platform. In my previous post, I was fairly harsh towards…
The Ontario NDP’s small plan isn’t even good strategy
Shortly after the 2014 Ontario Election was called, I said that progressives – whether nonpartisans like myself or NDP supporters like some of you – should take yes for an…
The marriage equality war in the US is over. We won.
You know how on election night the TV news channels try to out do each other with ever more ridiculous graphics and sound to announce their big “Official Prediction” ages…
Justin Trudeau plays the long game on abortion
The general response to Justin Trudeau’s new edict on abortion – that all new Liberal candidates must vote pro-life – has been overwhelmingly negative. Canada’s major newspapers’ editorial pages have…
Taking the HST off hydro is bad policy, if good politics
One of the signature campaign planks for the NDP in the 2014 Ontario Election is to remove the HST from our hydro bills, saving perhaps $120 a year for average…
While Wynne goes to the left, Hudak dives hard right
You might have thought that Tim Hudak would have learned his lesson after his disastrous and short lived attempt to push his party towards US style union busting: going hard…
John Tory’s empty "plan" for Toronto
Toronto mayoral candidate John Tory has penned an op-ed in the National Post claiming to explain what his plan is for Toronto. Usually politicians spend most of their campaigning time…
Ontario Election 2014 endorsement: the Left should take yes for an answer
The Liberals, federally or provincially, always have a choice when it comes to winning votes. They can either tilt to the right, trying to pick up votes from the Conservatives.…
Edward Snowden’s every move still strikes controversy
With Edward Snowden’s major contribution to history – the leaking of the NSA documents that shed significant light on what our governments are doing – now well over and done…