Rejection of mandatory minimum law for gun crimes confirms Supremes’ politicization

You have to admire Beverley McLachlin’s sense of humour.

In his crusade against the long-gun registry, Stephen Harper used to say “you don’t prevent gun crimes in our cities by cracking down on duck-hunters.”

Now the Supreme Court of Canada has decided to strike down the government’s mandatory minimum sentencing legislation on gun crimes, on the grounds that it could side-swipe …. duck hunters.

New research council mandate shows Conservative’s hostility to free market

The tendency among the Harper government’s critics will be to see the new mandate it has given the National Research Council, directing it to shift away from basic science toward producing research for industry, as part of a wider pattern of hostility to science, intellect and evidence — of a piece, say, with the destruction of the long-form census.

Among the government’s friends, on the other hand, the NRC’s new business-friendly mandate will no doubt be seen as an example of its unrelenting focus on the economy, adding a much-needed dose of realism to the council’s research and supporting the innovation efforts of Canadian industry. Both views, I think, have it wrong.

Why Christie Blatchford Is Wrong About My Daughter Rehtaeh

This morning I woke up and read an article in the National Post about Rehtaeh's case. I'm not upset or mad. A little disappointed maybe. The writer, Christie Blatchford, makes a few statements I would like to address.

    "What they had was a complainant whose evidence was all over the map, independent evidence that supported the notion that any sex was consensual, and no evidence that Rehtaeh was so drunk that she couldn't consent: The case was a mess." ~ Christie Blatchford

Unemployment dangerously low

For most people, an unemployment rate of about 7%, while well below its recession peak of 8.7%, still reflects an unacceptable degree of slack in the labour market. This leads some to advocate further government action to stimulate the economy and create jobs, and others to more extreme calls to limit immigration.

A closer look shows that the unemployment rate already is unusually low, especially after a sub-par recovery from recession. Moreover, unemployment may be lower than the headlines suggest. This leaves employers facing widespread labour shortages and the economy vulnerable to upward pressure on wages and prices.
Start with the unemployment rate in Canada. For all of 2012, it averaged 7.2% using the conventional rate calculated by Statistics Canada. So far in 2013, it has been 7.1%. These are historically low levels by any standard. Quarterly unemployment never fell below 7% in the 1980s and 1990s, and only dipped below it during the resource boom before the 2008 recession. At a similar point in the recovery from the recessions in the early 1980s and 1990s, the unemployment rate was still near 10%. Considering the sub-par growth rate in the current recovery, this shows that unemployment already is at an exceptionally low level.

Now, instead of the conventional measure of unemployment, calculate Canada’s unemployment rate by applying U.S. concepts (basically, they are a little more hard-nosed about what constitutes job search and exclude 15-year-olds). By this measure, Canada’s unemployment rate last year would have been 6.3%, nearly a full percentage point lower than the headline rate.

Remember, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board has said it will start tightening monetary policy when unemployment reaches 6.5%. So Canada’s unemployment rate, using the same yardstick as the U.S., already is below the level that would induce the Fed to tighten.

Moreover, from a macroeconomic standpoint, the underlying rate of unemployment may be closer to 5% than 6%. Joblessness is concentrated in two groups with double-digit unemployment rates, teenagers and recent immigrants. Last year, youths aged 15 to 19 had an unemployment rate of 20.1%, while for recent immigrants (in the country for five years or less) it was 13.5%. I am not sure how much of a social problem unemployed teens represent, but clearly it is not something which needs the heavy artillery of ultra low interest rates. For recent immigrants, we will see if recent government reforms improve the integration of immigrants into our labour market, but the problem should be addressed with specific policies aimed at this group, not the economy-wide tools of monetary or fiscal policy.

Together, teens and recent immigrants account for a full percentage point of total unemployment. Using the U.S. concept of unemployment, and then subtracting the impact of teenagers and recent immigrants from unemployment, and suddenly you are looking at an unemployment rate of 5.2%, at which point alarm bells have to start sounding (there is a small amount of overlap in excluding 15-year-olds from both the U.S. definition and from teens, but this is inconsequential to the argument).

This has major implications for policy formulation. Instead of maintaining budget deficits and low interest rates to dampen unemployment, it would be better if specific policies targeted the problems of teens and immigrants, or even other groups with above-average unemployment rates like Aboriginals or the disabled.

That the macroeconomy is a lot closer to full capacity than many think is supported by the widespread complaints from the business community that labour is in short supply. Early this year, the Chamber of Commerce characterized worsening shortages as “desperate” and a threat to future growth. We are already seeing a sustained upward trend in real wages, with average hourly earnings up 3.0% in the past year, close to its peak rate of 3.2% at the height of the boom early in 2008. This is another reason why the Bank of Canada should be unwinding its ultra easy monetary policy and starting to raise interest rates, never mind the damage these policies are doing to the economy’s allocation of capital.

How can unemployment be dangerously low when we just saw another quarter of sluggish growth in GDP? Partly, the slack in GDP represents transitory factors. But mostly, this is the new normal in labour markets, as the population ages and people leave the labour force. The labour force participation rate has fallen steadily since 2008, its longest and most pronounced slide on record. The impact of aging is easily seen. While the participation rates of both primed aged adults and people over 55 years are rising, the overall participation rate is falling because people are moving rapidly into the latter group, who have a much lower rate of being active in the labour force.

A declining participation rate also has been the major factor lowering unemployment in the U.S. from 10% to below 8%, despite an even weaker recovery than in Canada. If, heaven forbid, growth ever began to pick-up, the pressure on labour markets could quickly lead to a jump in wages.

Instead of striving to buttress aggregate demand, which only aggravates labour shortages, more attention should be placed on boosting labour supply. This includes a better job of integrating people who are often marginalized in the labour force, like the very young and the very old, as well as immigrants and Aboriginals. Soon, Canada will need the contributions of all its peoples to sustain non-inflationary growth.

Original Article
Source: opinion.financialpost.com
Author: Philip Cross

Jim Flaherty adds $150B to national mortgage, then lectures on evils of too much debt

Following his path-breaking intervention to spare consumers the horror of lower mortgage rates, can we expect the finance minister to act with the same boldness should competition threaten to break out in other sectors?

The risk of what the minister called a “race to the bottom,” after all, is ever present, and while I’m sure he maintains a constant vigil, even Jim Flaherty may not be able to call in time to stop some shady operator from cutting prices — not even with the full-time staff he apparently keeps on hand for such emergencies. I don’t want to cause a panic, but I’m told that, as we speak, Sobeys has a special on canned peaches.

The New York Times calls for war on Canadian oil

It looks like the Keystone XL pipeline is coming down to a nasty war on Canada. In a stunning lead editorial Monday, The New York Times — which is inexplicably slated in June to receive a special tribute at the Canadian Journalism Foundation annual gala — told President Barack Obama he should “say no” to the pipeline that would bring more Canadian oil to the United States.

But the newspaper did more than that. The Times editorial, “When to Say No,” essentially urged Mr. Obama to declare a war on Canada’s oil sands. The Keystone decision, said the Times, is not merely about the environmental impact of the pipeline on flora and fauna as it runs through the United States. Nor is it about the alleged climate impact of the annual carbon emissions from producing and refining the oil that would flow through the pipeline and eventually to U.S. consumers.

Canada’s environmental protection must keep pace with economic development

If two weeks in China teaches you anything, it is the perils of growth-at-all-cost. Lack of environmental protection there has left much of the country facing what Internet users are calling “airpocalypse.”

The latest report by the environment commissioner does not suggest Canada is anywhere close to China’s level of ecological degradation, but Scott Vaughan said he is concerned environmental protection is failing to keep pace with economic development.

‘Generation gap’: Have women’s gains made push for gender equity legislation outdated?

To Senator Linda Frum’s mind, it is time for her older colleague, Céline Hervieux-Payette, to lay down her arms. The key feminist battles have already been settled in women’s favour, Ms. Frum argues, and it is the passage of time — not legislation — that will cement the victory.

Ms. Hervieux-Payette, a 71-year-old Liberal senator from Quebec, is the sponsor of a bill that would legislate gender balance on boards of public companies, banks and Crown corporations — a bill that once prompted a heated tète-à-tète in the upper chamber, with Ms. Hervieux-Payette accusing the Conservatives generally of “complete fabrication,” and Ms. Frum specifically of playing games with numbers.

Attack of the lady premiers

The election of Kathleen Wynne as premier of Ontario, and the visit of Quebec Premier Pauline Marois to Scotland so she could pose as being on the cutting edge of a legitimate, contemporary international separatist wave, might incite fear among some traditionalists that much of Canada, at the provincial level, has passed into the hands of governments led by nasty women.

Ms. Wynne is not as well-known nationally as is Ms. Marois. But she is steeped to the eyeballs in the brackish water of the McGuinty regime, whose outgoing leader claims to have got “the important things” right, but has conducted Ontario to a position of dependence on hand-outs from Ottawa, and has nearly doubled the provincial debt; squandered billions on hare-brained eco-fadishness and other nostrums, and is, by Canada’s prudish standards, scandal-tainted.

Canada, the new Arcadia. Watch out for the abyss

Through the miracle of social media, we learned this week the prime minister really is the type of guy who tucks his shirt into his underwear, has fruit salad for lunch and is in bed by 8.30.

In keeping with the new spirit of glasnost blowing through his office, on Wednesday Stephen Harper permitted the media to watch his maiden speech of the year to the Conservative caucus.

In the event, it was more painted floozy than maiden, shamelessly extolling the virtues of seven years of Harper rule.

We need F-35s because Canada is worth defending

Amid the media and Parliamentary frenzy over the estimated $46-billion cost to replace Canada’s aging CF-18s with F-35 stealth fighters, a fundamental point has been missed entirely. The first and most important obligation of the government is the security of the country, its sovereignty and the safety and well-being of its citizens. Our politicians must do a better job of remembering this, especially since Canada is a particularly challenging country to secure. That means getting the best equipment possible.

Expensive questions: It cost taxpayers $150,000 to answer a single query from a Liberal MP

It cost taxpayers an estimated $1.2-million to answer written questions from MPs – including $150,000 on a single query from a Liberal MP, new figures reveal.

The questions, 305 of them, were all tabled in the House of Commons during a three-month period this year, and they were wide-ranging.

For instance, a written question from NDP MP Peter Stoffer about IT spending at the Department of Defence, Public Security and other federal agencies cost $15,733 to answer. It cost $15,358 to study the kinds of backdrops the government used when making announcements between February 2011 and June 2012 — a question asked by Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, of Winnipeg North. Mr. Lamoureux tabled four questions on June 19, for a total cost of $46,228.

Peter MacKay looks to rebound political career after F-35 ‘debacle’

When the Auditor-General’s report into the F-35 purchase came out last spring, Peter MacKay hadn’t set eyes on the file for a year, according to people close to him.

Yet voters need a scapegoat and so – with the enthusiastic help of some of the Defence Minister’s Conservative colleagues – the words “F-35” and “Peter MacKay” became synonymous.

The piling on became so egregious, speculation sprinted around Parliament Hill that Mr. MacKay was set to quit politics, and decamp to Bay Street with his new wife, Nazanin Afshin-Jam.

Supporting the Conservatives’ plan to set workers free

There was something absurd about the whole thing. On Monday, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) — the largest union of federal public servants in the country — endorsed two separatist parties in Quebec’s election. After assessing the provincial parties “on the basis of their positions on workers’ and citizens’ rights, public services and unions,” PSAC’s National Capital Region arm ranked the Parti Québécois first, followed by Québec Solidaire in second. It ranked the Liberals and the Coalition Avenir Québec third and fourth, respectively.

Don’t fear the preacher. Let politicians pray in peace

Every now and again, some commentator insinuates that evangelicals have unprecedented influence in Canadian politics; and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper might be one of them, on account of he’s a member of an evangelical congregation and doesn’t talk about his beliefs; and that perhaps this threatens, or should threaten, the traditional separation between politicians’ personal and religious beliefs and their public lives. Lawrence Martin was the latest to do so this week, in The Globe and Mail, citing journalist Andrew Nikiforuk’s circumstantial case for a divinely inspired Prime Minister published recently by The Tyee.

Tony Clement joins Ezra Levant in attack on Twitter against former Globe editor for moving to Cuba

Uber-tweeter (and president of the Treasury Board) Tony Clement typed his way into the ring Wednesday to join a media throwdown between former Globe and Mail editor Stephen Wicary and Sun TV’s Ezra Levant.

The war of words began after Levant launched a three–minute tirade on his TV show against Wicary earlier this month, after the former Globe online editor left the newspaper to join his wife for a new life in communist Cuba.

Polls show Canada actually more progressive after six years of Tory rule

Six years into the Harper era, Canadians are inching inexorably into the conservative, and Conservative, columns. Right? And though not all are pleased with this incremental, rightward shift, most — the so-called silent majority — tacitly accept it.

Well, no, actually. The latest data from pollster Ipsos Reid, part of a wide-ranging examination of popular sentiment for Postmedia News and Global Television, doesn’t suggest this at all. If anything the numbers indicate Canadians today are more solidly progressive than we have ever been. Perhaps we are a more complex and mature people than the received wisdom gives us credit for. And perhaps this means that our national political leaders, across the spectrum, don’t understand or reflect our views nearly as fully or as precisely as they might.

The National Post on union kids' camps: Threat or menace?

Confession time: Years ago I sat on the board of a church camp.

I sent my kids there. One year one of my daughters was a counsellor at the camp.

And at that camp, they taught those kids … and here comes the confession part … Christian doctrine!

Real Christian doctrine, too, stuff right out of the Bible about helping the poor, kindness to the imprisoned and letting he who is without sin cast the first stone.

This is not the sort of thing the raw-meat fundies who support the Wildrose Party and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's so-called Conservatives think of as being Christian at all. The Bronze Age rigours of the Old Testament are more to their taste.

Even more ethical than you thought

As Thomas Mulcair can attest, it is rather easier to speak about the oil sands than it is to actually get up here and see what is going on. Fort McMurray, Alta. is remote, and while my first visit was rather longer than Mr. Mulcair’s, it was still only a full day.

Three years ago, upon the occasion of the merger of oil sands pioneer Suncor with Petro-Canada, this column examined some of the ethical questions posed by oil sands development. The argument then was just emerging about “ethical oil,” namely that Alberta oil is morally and strategically superior because it does not support odious regimes, from Venezuela to Saudi Arabia to Russia. The argument has only become stronger since then, propelled by Ezra Levant’s eponymous book, and adopted in the rhetoric of the federal government.

Let entrepreneurs tackle tailings ponds

Critics of Alberta’s oil sands development have been saying for years that it should be scaled down, stopped or at the very least highly taxed and heavily regulated to help contain its effects on the environment.

A more recent criticism, popularized by the leader of the NDP, Thomas Mulcair, is that the oil sands are harming the manufacturing sectors of Ontario and Quebec by pushing up the value of the dollar — the so-called Dutch disease.

These critics are wrong on both counts.