When the Citizen asked me to write on the reported latest Liberal fancy — a guaranteed annual income program — I asked whether it wanted (a) a political rebuttal (b) a constitutional rebuttal (c) a purely economic rebuttal (d) a…

Losing the federal election to the Chretien Liberals may, as Lady Churchill said to her husband following electoral defeat in 1945, “be a blessing in disguise” for the Canadian Alliance. For the prospects facing a third-term Chretien government hold the…

In 1997, the provinces and Ottawa reached two important agreements, one about benefits directed toward children and the second about the provinces’ flexibility in designing their own tax systems. Together these agreements give the Atlantic provinces a historic opportunity to…

Are some families’ kids worth more than others’ kids? An innocuous question with, for most of us, an obvious answer. Yet if he were asked it in the House of Commons, Finance Minister Paul Martin might sense a setup and…

Using Canada’s tax system as a social policy tool has created unfairness in federal income tax policy, hurting Canadian families, particularly those with children, argues a study released by the C.D. Howe Institute. The authors suggest that providing a universal…