Good public policy now looks better than ever.

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Canada's only truly national public policy think tank based in Ottawa, has launched a new website. The totally redesigned page is designed to further engage opinion leaders, policy makers and the public in boosting MLI's goal: making poor quality public policy unacceptable.

The new website is optimized to give visitors easy access to MLI's high-quality, independent policy work, which ranges in diversity from natural resources to health care. It provides quick, easy access to the latest MLI news and media coverage, making it easier than ever to keep up with the activities of a Canadian leader in public policy.

To view the new site, go to http://www.macdonaldllaurier.ca.

Writing in the Globe and Mail, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley calls on the federal government to take the lead in knocking down barriers to interprovincial trade by creating a charter of economic rights that courts will enforce. He lauds the goal of federal Industry Minister James Moore, who has recently expressed a willingness to reduce those barriers, but says the status quo will reign if the feds don't get tough with their provincial counterparts.

Writing for iPolitics, MLI Senior Fellow in economics Linda Nazareth argues that the temporary foreign worker program has an important role to play in generating economic growth. Nazareth, the subject of a recent Straight Talk Q&A on the subject, says that in many cases businesses are turning to the TFW program to fill labour needs where domestic workers are unavailable. Denying access to those workers only hurts the economy, she argues, since businesses need to find the right people to help them grow.

Nazareth appeared on Ottawa talk radio station 1310 News to discuss TFWs. The Q&A also appeared in its entirety on the website New Canadian Media.

Writing in Alberta Oil Magazine, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley makes the case for why developing natural resources creates more value for the Canadian economy than manufacturing.

He argues that many products generate wealth during the design and distribution, rather than production, stages of the development process, which should raise natural resources like bitumen or copper to a prominent place of importance for the economy.

This, he says, runs "contrary to the widespread assumptions of economic nationalists who belittle the hewing of wood and the drawing of water as beneath the aspirations of serious nations, who should pursue manufacturing and other forms of processing at all costs".

Macquarie Equities Resarch, a global provider of investment information, also cited one of Crowley's columns on natural resources in a research note.

Writing in Postmedia papers, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley argues that a court decision forcing Google to suppress certain links in Internet searches leaves the historical record vulnerable to damage. Crowley says the "right to be forgotten", as the case is now known, gives too much power to those seeking to erase history.

The column appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, the Edmonton Journal, the Vancouver Sun, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, the Montreal Gazette, Vancouver's The Province, the Regina Leader-Post and the Calgary Herald.

Appearing on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, the author of a recently released MLI report on governments' duty to consult with Aboriginals says the constitutional doctrine presents opportunities for a new era of cooperation on natural resource projects.

Writing in Postmedia papers, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley draws lessons from the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe for the West's ongoing disputes with Russia.

He says the June 6, 1944 attacks that helped liberate Europe from the grip of the Nazis, and the subsequent challenge by the Soviet Union, remind us of the moral courage that's needed to defend the West's interests in the future.

"Russia is once again posing to the West the issue of the sacrifices we can and should be prepared to make to protect fundamental values like freedom, democracy and the rule of law", he writes.

The column appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, the Calgary Herald, Vancouver's The Province, the Vancouver Sun, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and the Edmonton Journal.

The author of an MLI study on the cost of policing was quoted in the Telegraph-Journal on the rising costs of overtime for police in Saint John, N.B. Christian Leuprecht, the author of "The Blue Line or the Bottom Line of Police Services in Canada? Arresting runaway costs", told the newspaper that many services are hesitant to pare back on overtime because they often treat it as a salary entitlement for police officers. The Telegraph-Journal reported that the overtime costs for Saint John's police force came in $420,000 over the $255,000 budget. Leuprecht, however, says that well-managed forces shouldn't need to go that far over budget.

To read the article, click here for page one and here for page two.