OTTAWA - Stephen Harper's vague musings about modest reforms to Canada's public pension system, addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have the opposition howling about a "war on pensions" and the Conservatives "attacking seniors." Such rhetoric is as predictable as it is unhelpful. Click here to read the rest.
Do I repeat myself? Very well, then, I repeat myself. Until a major problem goes away you shouldn’t stop warning about it. And the Harper government’s reckless, meddlesome, big-spending interventionism has not gone away. Click here to read the rest.
Once Parliament returns next week, its main business should be scrutinizing the budget expected by early March. It's going to be a mess: way too much spending, borrowing and handouts through tax loopholes. But they won't scrutinize it unless we make them. And by accident or design Canadian government budgets are almost impossible for citizens to understand. Click here to read the rest.
Terrorists with weapons of mass destruction are the stuff of nightmares, obliterating millions with nuclear, chemical or, perhaps most horrifying, biological attack. So what sort of reckless idiot would consider publishing the recipe for a devastating man-made flu? The surprising answer is, a wise and responsible one. Click here to read the rest.
Give the finance department credit for its annual attempt to list Canada's tax loopholes and estimate their cost. But then recoil in horror at the resulting tens of billions of dollars in disguised spending. Yes, spending. That's what tax breaks really are. Click here to read the rest.
It looks as though the federal Tories and Ontario Grits are finally going to bite the bullet on government spending. The problem is, the bullet might bite back. Click here to read the rest.
The elaborate American system of primaries, caucuses and straw polls certainly gives voters, and the politically committed, a thorough look at the ideas and characters of candidates ... if any. They may not like what they see. But you don't have to be a fan of Mitt Romney, and I speak from experience here, to think it beats buying a pig in a poke.
To many observers, especially mainstream journalists, the news that a right-wing weirdo is polling well among Republicans is a non-story. They consider any Republican a right-wing weirdo unfit for office except "moderates," a code word for closet liberal Democrats. But Texas libertarian congressman Ron Paul's strong showing, including a serious threat to win the GOP's Iowa caucus, is almost as bad as they think, and far more important, though not for the reasons they think.