Opinion
What exactly is the national interest?
"We should all be skeptical when the national interest is too easily invoked," writes Trevor Harrison. "Appeals to national interest too often cloak what is, in fact, self-interest."
No alternative to a sales tax
Tax measure would help Alberta get back onto a solid financial footing
Alberta must bring in a harmonized sales tax. This is the conclusion reached by myself and 18 economists, political scientists, sociologists and other public policy experts in an article that recently ran in two major Alberta newspapers. Why did we say this?
Put simply, there is no realistic alternative if the province hopes to return to a balanced budget and pay for necessary services.
It’s time to quit the boom-bust roller coaster
“Please Lord, give me another oil boom, and I promise not to p… it away!” said a popular Alberta bumper sticker in the 1980s.
Is it time for an Alberta tax commission?
A recent poll reports that 43 per cent of Albertans disapprove of the NDP government’s budget announcing a $6.1 billion deficit for 2015-16. At the same time, 55 per cent do not want cuts to capital spending and 49 per cent approve of the government’s plan to increase capital spending.
Harper's dance may be out of step
I interviewed Stephen Harper in the fall of 1991 as part of my doctoral research into the Reform party. Of all the things he said at that time, the comment that has stuck most with me was that it was undesirable for a governing party to garner more than optimum electoral support; beyond that meant it owed too much to too many voters.
Premiers blowing hot air on climate change
Canada’s premiers agreed to a master energy and climate change plan July 17. It’s specific on fast-tracking pipelines, but “aspirational” on climate action.
Minimum wage hike won't ruin Alberta
Any proposal to increase the minimum wage by any amount in any province or territory seems to be met with dire warnings of massive job losses and impending economic doom. The problem for critics of the minimum wage is, neither history nor academic research backs these notions up.
Post-secondary education not premier’s priority
In late February, Premier Jim Prentice betrayed his lack of vision for post-secondary education in the province, saying: “There are always carrots and sticks.” But what’s the objective?
For women, it’s the Alberta Disadvantage
Alberta is the richest jurisdiction in North America. But women living in the province are among the most disadvantaged in Canada, facing higher income gaps, unpaid work gaps, and after-tax income gaps than women living anywhere else in the country.
And despite the renewed and expanded commitments made in Canada to women’s equality in 1995, Alberta women’s equality has markedly deteriorated since then.
One day after International Women’s Day is the perfect time to ask why.
Focus Alberta tax talk on income, not sales
The Alberta government boasts in every budget that with its “Tax Advantage” program, Albertans pay the lowest taxes in Canada, and maybe even in North America. All personal and corporate incomes are taxed at a single 10-per-cent rate – except for small businesses, which pay a low 3-per-cent rate.