The rule of law and its protection of property form the bedrock of economic freedom, but pressures from mainland China put those attributes in peril
By James Gwartney and Fred McMahon The Fraser Institute In the Fraser Institute’s latest Economic Freedom of the World ranking, Hong Kong again tops the list as the world’s freest economy. It has occupied this position almost without exception through the past half century – but will it remain there? The foundation for Hong Kong’s…
Populism some call it, but the consequence in many regions around the world has been a slippage into autocracy
In 1972, Mitchell Sharp, Canadian secretary of state for external affairs, famously penned his Third Option doctrine. It was not exactly anti-American but it was American-anxious. The idea was to reduce Canada’s vulnerability to swings in mood and trade from the United States by diversifying our economic, cultural and political relations, especially toward rising powers…
Next year the Province of Manitoba will celebrate its 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province.
Next year, 2020, will be celebrated by the Province of Manitoba as the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province. How will we, in Portage la Prairie, acknowledge this? Check the latest Statistics Canada census results (2016). Portage la Prairie had 12, 949 folks in the reporting boundary of the municipality. Of this total,…
China has played Canada in impressive fashion over the last six months and the meat ban is a masterful stroke
Canada is losing the food safety optics game against China. While Canada has demonstrated many times that its food safety record is outstanding – in fact, one of the best in the world – none of it matters now. Since Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on…
Since we’re in an economic and moral conflict with China, why not do the entirely virtuous thing and withdraw our recognition of Beijing?
In 1970, Pierre Trudeau’s Canadian government cut diplomatic ties with one government claiming to rule China and recognized another. It’s time to reverse that decision. Out went a longtime ally, the quasi-democratic Republic of China, based on the island of Taiwan, and in came the nasty tyranny known as the People’s Republic of China under…
How does a Liberal government that can’t campaign on its abysmal record go about gaining re-election?
As the federal election approaches, the Liberal government’s record has become increasingly more difficult to defend. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise in the last election that he would run only ‘modest’ deficits has burgeoned into a national debt increase that is bigger per person than that racked up by any government in Canadian history, outside…
These parents didn’t want daughters. It’s misogyny in one of its most explicit forms
One topic you should never argue about in polite company is abortion. The politics are volatile, the emotions fraught. With the conversation climate the way it is (stormy), the only people who can talk about the issue are either diehard abortionists or martyrdom-craving anti-abortionists. Anybody else who speaks on the issue will find themselves banished…
It employs its great military, economic and seductive power to advance repression around the world
As we watch the chaos on the streets of Venezuela, it’s apt to revisit the latest Human Freedom Index, published in part by the Fraser Institute. The index highlights an old danger re-emerging: authoritarian seducers, regimes that promote their model of despotism internationally through charm, money, power, bribery, threats and violence. Since the rise of…
Are we prepared for a world full of machines, governing everything in steely alignment with the technocrats’ goals?
The Terminator movies were prediction, not fiction. The proof abounds in China, recently dubbed by CBC as the world’s first digital dictatorship. China has interfaced wireless technology with surveillance cameras and facial recognition software to form Sky Net. And fifth-generation mobile phones, or 5G, are coming to Canada. That means Chinese technology and its usage…
From canola to peas and soybeans, the Chinese are using our commodities as bargaining chips in a diplomatic dispute
Canola was first, and now peas and soybeans. It was highly predictable. And given how things have progressed over the last five months, the situation can only escalate. The Canadian government has pledged to help farmers affected by our epic spat with China. But other than offering cash or support to develop new markets for…
By James Gwartney and Fred McMahon The Fraser Institute In the Fraser Institute’s latest Economic Freedom of the World ranking, Hong Kong again tops the list as the world’s freest economy. It has occupied this position almost without exception through the past half century – but will it remain there? The foundation for Hong Kong’s…
