MLI Newsletter
Vol. II, No. 4
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Now available at amazon.com |
Connect with MLI
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| MLI's First Book Wins Prestigious International Award | |
MLI's first book, The Canadian Century: Moving out of America's shadow, has won a highly coveted international think tank prize: the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for 2011, awarded by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
Created in honour of Sir Antony Fisher, one of the founders of the Institute for Economic Affairs, a renowned think tank in London, the Fisher Award recognizes excellence in public policy think tank publications and projects. Over 100 think tanks in more than 80 countries are eligible for this prize. This year 66 publications were nominated worldwide.
The Canadian Century is now available as a Kindle download from amazon.com
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MLI in the Globe and Mail on Corporate Taxation | |
In the April 8, 2011 edition of the Globe and Mail, MLI's  Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley and MLI Senior Fellow Jason Clemens discuss the hot issue of corporate taxation and the country's economic prospects. They remind us that "...it's important to consider the evidence, rather than just rhetoric" in deciding whether it makes sense to continue with successive governments' plans to reduce the federal corporate income tax rate. Drawing on evidence from the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada, the OECD and some of Canada's leading authorities on tax policy, Crowley and Clemens conclude that this is a policy that has served Canada well at very low cost in terms of lost revenue (a point Clemens noted in his Commentary recently for MLI). |
Pills, Patents and Profits | |
On March 25, 2011, MLI issued the first in a series of papers on pharmaceutical policy called Pills, Patents & Profits. Pharmaceutical policy is vitally important in Canada because of the high cost of drugs and their increasingly central role in improving the health and life expectancy of Canadians. Applying documented practical experience, common sense and economic insight, one of Canada's leading health economists, Brian Ferguson, of the University of Guelph, identifies and discusses the key questions on which sensible pharmaceutical policy depends but where misconceptions, misinformation and poorly conceived policy abound. Those questions include the role of patents, the cost of inventing new drugs, the balance to be struck between brand name drugs and generics and several more.
This paper explains why each one of these questions matters to Canadians affected by the quality, price and availability of therapeutic drugs and why it is vital that policymakers get the answers to these questions right - something they have not always managed to do in the past.
Each subsequent paper in the series will answer one of these key questions in order to provide clarity about the effects of current pharmaceutical policy including how much patients pay and what medicines they can get, and generate suggestions for legislative and regulatory reforms to enhance the well-being of Canadians.
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The Crime Stats Debate - the Real Numbers | |
Myths and Urban Legends concerning Crime in Canada, written by Ian Lee, PhD, Associate Professor at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business, responds to the "angry and sustained response from criminologists" to MLI's February study Why Canadian crime statistics do not add up: not the whole truth by Scott Newark. Lee addresses three policy issues debated by Parliament and the public over the last three years:
1. Is violent crime increasing or decreasing in Canada and on whom and where in Canada does it fall?
2. Does Canada incarcerate large numbers of offenders, as is often claimed - and "large" relative to what benchmark: total number of crimes committed or the Canadian population or some other country?
3. Are Canadian governments spending a large and increasing amount on incarceration - and "large" relative to what benchmark: - total federal spending, total government spending, or something else?
In his research, Lee highlights empirical data on these questions from such sources as Statistics Canada, Corrections Canada, Department of Public Safety, Public Works and Government Services Canada and Treasury Board.
Lee says "Canadians from all walks of life should be encouraged and allowed to participate in the crime debate with all relevant data, without fear of condemnation from criminologists who have appropriated the debate to themselves." |
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MLI - On the Air | |
MLI Fellow Alex Wilner was on the Arlene Bynon Show on Talk  Radio AM640 in Toronto on April 3, 2011, at 3:00 pm, to discuss Canadian-grown terrorism, and the problem it poses for the world. This interview was as a result of Alex's article in the March 31st edition of the National Post titled Canada Grows its own Terrorists. Wilner's Op Ed was also picked up by the Calgary Beacon, the Surrey Beacon, the Epoch Times, and the Sudbury Star
Brian Lee Crowley was on Goldhawk Live on April 10, 2011. He joined the discussion about the current election campaign on Goldhawk Live on CPAC. The discussion centred around the federal party's promises over the past two weeks of the campaign, and how economically feasible their promises sound in the context of a large deficit and a healthcare crunch that most agree is headed for a crisis in funding to support our aging population.
The program is archived on the Goldhawk Live web page on www.cpac.ca |
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Brian Lee Crowley in the Hill Times | |
In the March 28th issue of The Hill Times, Crowley discusses how the true significance of an apology has been lost in the political world and today acts of alleged contrition by public figures often end up exacerbating the problem rather than solving it. And the most important apologies never get made at all.
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