Le Systemiste

Tag: economy

  • Should Carney, the businessman, really run Canada like a business?

    This article was published in the Globe and Mail on October 30th, 2025 As Prime Minister, Mark Carney has adopted the language of the private sector – talking up investments in targeted industries, housing construction, export marketing and public work force reductions. Commentators have said he is running the government like a CEO and will run Canada like a business.…

  • We can make globalization great again

    Published in the Globe and Mail on August 21st U.S. tariffs, manufacturing subsidies, and anti-immigration and isolationist policies reflect a population discontent with trade and globalization that has been growing since the financial crisis of 2008. While the U.S. government may be the loudest voice against globalization, similar nationalistic policies can be seen in many other countries,…

  • A better way to help the working poor

    This article was published in Policy Options on June 25, 2025: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2025/minimum-wage-alternatives/ Minimum wages are going up – Quebec raised its rate on May 1 and Ontario and British Columbia followed on June 1.  Some see the increases as insufficient to meet current costs of living while others argue they are too costly and will lead to massive layoffs.…

  • It is time to improve our countercyclical fiscal support

    This article (with a different title) was published in the Globe and Mail on March 6, 2025 Federal and provincial governments plan to introduce pandemic-style measures to support businesses and workers if the U.S. administration carries out its tariff threats. Experience with past recessions suggests there is a risk this support may come too late…

  • The federal government did not meet a fiscal guardrail. So what?

    This article was published in the Globe and Mail on Dec. 16th, 2024 Monday’s fall economic statement put the federal deficit for the last fiscal year at $61.9-billion. As a result, the federal government did not meet one of its fiscal guardrails. So what? Why are so many people up in arms that the government…

  • Trump is an opportunity for Ottawa to push politically difficult, but vital, policies

    (This article was published in the Globe and Mail on Nov. 21st, 2024 Most analysts are concerned about the negative impact U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s economic policies, especially those on trade, could have on Canada. But there are also opportunities. We can turn the Trump election and the 2026 renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement…

  • Beware the punishing costs of isolationism

    This article was published in the Globe&Mail on Oct. 13, 2024 A large majority of Canadians support imposing tariffs on some Chinese products, reducing the number of temporary foreign workers and scaling down immigration. We need to recognize that closing our borders to foreign products and workers will raise our cost of living. We cannot logically applaud policies aimed…