Month: August 2013

It’s Groundhog Day in Quebec

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Remember that movie “Groundhog Day“? An arrogant weatherman, played by Bill Murray finds himself living through groundhog day over and over, until he finally mends his ways?  I kind of feel like that with Quebec.

About this time last year, I had a post about the Party Québécois’ (the “PQ“) proposal to prohibit Quebec civil servants from displaying religious symbols at work, well, other than crucifixes (see Secularism – Iran Style).  Well, here we are, a year later, and guess what, we have a post about a new PQ proposal to ban all religious headwear and dress by public sector workers in Quebec (which, given that Quebec’s public sectors is massively bloated is half the work force).  Sigh. Continue reading “It’s Groundhog Day in Quebec” →

The Cronut Burger and a Fistful of Bacon – No Wonder North Americans are Fat

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Cronut Burger from Epic Burgers & Waffles and ...
Cronut Burger from Epic Burgers & Waffles and La Dolci (Photo credit: LexnGer)

So, apparently, over 100 people (so far) have gotten sick as a result of eating cronut burgers (right) at the CNE.

For those of you not familiar with this particular piece of modern North American cuisine, a cronut is the bastard offspring of a donut and a croissant.  Toss in a (presumably) beef patty and some sort of maple-bacon jam and – voila – a cronut burger!  What could go wrong?

Continue reading “The Cronut Burger and a Fistful of Bacon – No Wonder North Americans are Fat” →

Coporate Income Tax, Dutch Disease, and Left-Wing Economic Incoherence

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I was thinking some more about NDP tax policy the other night and I was struck by the dichotomy between left-wing thinking on tax and monetary policy and their implications for corporations.

The NDP and its fellow-travelers have, for years now, been lamenting the strength of Canada’s dollar, suggesting that it has hollowed out the Canadian manufacturing sector, undermining jobs.  Whether it’s NDP Leader Thomas Mulclair complaining about “Dutch Disease” or labour economists Erin Weir  or Andrew Jackson proposing ways to control the Canadian dollar, the economic brain-trust on the left seem to agree that a rising dollar is bad for both Canadian corporations in the manufacturing sector and, ultimately (though perhaps foremost) their workers.

Continue reading “Coporate Income Tax, Dutch Disease, and Left-Wing Economic Incoherence” →

If the NDP Wants to Start a Conversation About Taxes, Here’s Where they Should Start

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It’s been a slow month, so I’ve been following the low profile policy bun-fight that’s broken out in NDP ranks in reaction to Thomas Mulclair’s commitment that, if elected, the NDP won’t raise taxes (other than the corporate income tax, which I’ll come back to).  Dawn Black, over at ipolitics.ca (in an otherwise strange article trying to link the Harper Conservatives with the lunatic “freeman” movement of tax protestors) goes to the crux of the matter, surely the NDP believes that taxes fund social programs that Canadians that  make Canada a better country, in which case “[t]ax hikes are a reasonable option that reasonable people can discuss“. By avoiding that discussion (or at least, sharply circumscribing it), Mulclair and the NDP are ceding the tax policy space to the Tories. Continue reading “If the NDP Wants to Start a Conversation About Taxes, Here’s Where they Should Start” →