Troy Media

Don’t use tax dollars to pillage businesses from other parts of Canada

By Robert Roach Canadians are sometimes derided for not being ruthless enough in the international economy. It is ironic, therefore, that we are so willing to cut one another's economic throats here at home.

Flat-earth Aboriginal politics at the UN

By Joseph Quesnel Back in the Middle Ages it was assumed that the earth was flat or the sun revolved around the earth, - which is to say, as Copernicus later demonstrated, that the consensus on “the facts” can be wrong no matter how many people agree with them.

How to say no to a $56B deficit

By Mark Milke When governments wish to avoid frank admissions about bad budget numbers, including those produced by their own poor choices, one option is to try to highlight the "bright side" of such unpleasantness.

Forecast: A cooling trend on climate change

By Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd The United Nations is pulling out the “big guns” in an attempt to create a climate of urgency about climate change so that the meeting of over one hundred world leaders in Copenhagen some 75 days from now can produce an agreement to replace to failed Kyoto accord.

Five thoughts on the single rate income tax

By David Seymour For decades, supporters of multi-rate taxes flippantly dismissed flat-taxers as some intellectual cousin of flat-earthers. Few challenged the narrative that higher-income earners could, and therefore should, pay not only the same percentage of their income toward government coffers as everyone else, but more. Recently though, events have intervened.

Western Canada’s economy poised for a comeback

By Todd Hirsch This week, the Bank of Canada increased its economic forecast for the second half of the year. Not only has the recession technically ended, according to the central bank, but the economy may actually be springing back to life more quickly than first thought.

One year after the financial meltdown: Ordinary people still treated as collateral damage

By Dr. Kelly Ernst One year ago, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG sent shock waves through major financial markets and wreaked havoc in world economies. Millions of people were affected globally.

A recipe for failure in Ontario’s schools

By Michael Zwaagstra Research Associate Frontier Centre for Public Policy Question: What’s the surest way to ensure future failure? Answer: Double up on past strategies that have led to present failures - a good example of which comes from Ontario where fully one-third of elementary students in that province are below the provincial standard for reading, writing and math.

Canadian farmers COOL to US protectionism

By Dr. Milton Boyd Struggling US livestock producers - hit hard by the recent economic downturn and the drop in demand for meat in the United States - have spurred recent trade protectionism measures, including country of origin labelling regulations (COOL), that essentially require US meat processors to segregate live Canadian cattle and hogs from US animals.

Advancement in school results from achievement, not from a right

By Michael Zwaagstra As students head back to school, they and their parents will be unaware of a debate that rages in academia and among teachers: should teachers hold back (“fail” in common parlance) underperforming students to repeat a grade or is it better to promote them to the next grade with their peers?

A coalition to dump Blog subsidies

By Mark Milke When governments want to release information that they must but would prefer not to, media outlets will usually receive a news release late on Friday. This is often too late for both the next day’s paper and for television where the evening news line-up is already “in the can.” And even though Internet news can technically be updated 24-7, most media organizations maintain only minimal staffing outside the regular news day.

Municipal expropriation for economic development: A David Vs Goliath battle

By Joseph Quesnel Imagine a bureaucrat appears on your front step one day to inform you city hall wants the beachfront property you held in your family for generations—and the city wants it so they can turn it into a tourist resort.

1st century-style subjection of women

By Mark Milke The recent murder charges against Mohammad Shafia, his second wife and 18-year-old son in the alleged “honour killing” of Shafia’s three girls and their step-mom, bring into relief the status of women around the world.

Wholesale service providers and the CRTC

By Les Routledge, Research Associate, Frontier Centre for Public Policy Canada's major telecommunications firms – Bell, Rogers and Telus, among others - want to create a system that would enable them to control both their retail competition and the quality of the internet services we receive.

Municipal land-grabbing powers should be curtailed

• The Frontier Centre recommends not allowing municipal bodies to expropriate for economic development purposes;
• At a minimum, individual landowners should possess more procedural safeguards that ensure their land is not taken arbitrarily by governments.

We can’t spend our way out of the recession

By Dr. Roger Gibbins After months of unrelenting bad news about the economy, it is hard not to be just a little optimistic when, rather than the rain beating down, the sun shines and all seems right with the world.

Canadian human rights commissioner has free expression wrong

-Janet Keeping, President, Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership It is perfectly understandable that people disagree on how human rights statutes should be amended to best protect free expression. But a recent speech by Jennifer Lynch, Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, should worry everyone for it reveals a serious misunderstanding of free expression.

Myths hindering acceptance of creative farm policy

- Dr. Greg Mason, Department of Economics, University of Manitoba (Last of a three part series) Myths exist about the strategic position of food, the importance of the family farm to the preservation of rural Canada, and the need to defend Canadian farming in the face of European and American subsidization. These myths get in the way of creative farm policy.

No reason to fear environmental bogeyman

Ben Eisen, Policy Analyst, Frontier Centre for Public Policy For decades, the more radical elements of the modern environmental movement have employed terrifying, apocalyptic rhetoric in an effort to scare citizens and policymakers into enacting an agenda that can go beyond common sense environmental policies.

If it walks and squawks like a carbon tax, it is a carbon tax

- Ben Eisen, Policy Analyst, Frontier Centre for Public Policy During the last federal election, the Conservatives skewered then Liberal leader Stephan Dion's proposed carbon tax as a “tax on everything.” The Tories argued such a policy would place a significant strain on household budgets, curb economic growth, and contribute almost nothing towards the stated goal of the policy - to combat global warming.