Last year, I posed the question : “What new approaches will Canadian provinces bring to improving health care?”. Given the completion of 13 agreements between the federal government and the provinces and territories last spring, we now have information to answer that question. I worked from the strategies proposed by the Globe and Mail in… (read more)

Some of the consistent themes arising from the reports of Canada’s National Advisory Council on Poverty include: Of these, I would like to focus on Indigenous poverty and affordable housing – two of the more complex and yet urgent aspects of poverty reduction. Prosperity in a post-colonial Canada The main recommendation of the Council regarding… (read more)

In 2022, I was optimistic that poverty would be addressed in Canada because of the federal government’s 2018 poverty reduction strategy. They had set a new measure for poverty, where the price of a basket of basic food, clothes, housing and transport was set as the poverty line. This line is adjusted regionally and according… (read more)

I first started tracking the main flows of world trade in 2015. Following up in 2018, there were subtle changes in the export of goods from twenty of the largest economies. In today’s post, we will look at the initial effects of the trade deals and conflicts discussed in 2018 and the early impacts of… (read more)

I remember watching the TV in the hospital visiting room on my last shift as a volunteer before the pandemic. The news was all about Covid. It was clear that the risks had become too great for non-professionals like me. The nurses, doctors and patients would have little choice in the months and years ahead…. (read more)

The saying “Work smarter, not harder” is of particular interest in economics.  Though the typical measure of a country’s wealth is its production divided by its population, or GDP per capita, economists spend a lot of time looking at a slight variation on this, the value of its production divided by the number of hours… (read more)

The Globe & Mail ran a ten part series this May on how to improve health care in Canada, a topic of some interest for this blog. The timing of this set of articles is important. The provincial premiers, who are constitutionally bound to make policy for and ultimately pay for public healthcare, are demanding a… (read more)

Bill C-223 was introduced in Canada’s parliament on December 16, 2021 as part of a long tradition of anti-poverty legislation. Sadly, as a private member’s bill, there is little chance of it coming into force.  However, there is increasing optimism that the bill’s approach of introducing a framework for a guaranteed basic income for all… (read more)

This blog has long  been concerned about sustainable health care , in particular, Canadian health care. In the 2019 election, health care has taken a back seat to climate change and economic issues.  Still, the scope of public health care and the federal government’s role in assuring it is being discussed. Here, I offer a summary… (read more)

Doctors provide an essential service: they make us well. Shouldn’t they be paid for this? More specifically, shouldn’t those who have wealth or foresight have better access to care than those who can’t or won’t prepare for injury or disease? These are the questions that challenge the concept of universal health care. Yet, except in… (read more)