Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

State capacity is the measure of a government’s ability to get stuff done that benefits its population -- why elections might not matter quite as much as we think (The Audit)


State capacity is the measure of a government’s ability to get stuff done that benefits its population. There are many ways to quantify state capacity, including GDP per capita spent on health, education, and infrastructure versus outcomes; the tax-to-GDP ratio; judicial independence; enforcement of contracts; and crime rates.

But a government’s ability to actually implement its own policies has got to rank pretty high here, too. All the best intentions are worthless if, as I wrote in the context of the Liberal’s 2023 national action plan to end gender-based violence, your legislation just won’t work in the real world.

So I thought I’d take a look at some examples of federal legislation from the past ten years that passed through Parliament but, for one reason or another, failed to do the job ...

CLICK HERE for the full story

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FORSETH -- If having three un-happy MLA’s leave the party, is what it takes to have unity within caucus, then I say, “Fine; let it be so”

Regrettably, in recent days, issues within the Conservative Party of BC have come to the surface resulting in one member being removed from Caucus (Dallas Brodie) and the party, and two others (Tara Armstrong and Jordan Kealy) leaving of their own accord. As of this morning (Saturday March 8th) all three are now sitting as independents in the BC legislature. So, what does that mean? In the last twenty-four hours social media feeds have lit up with support for leader John Rustad, while others have been negative, accusing the party, and Rustad, of being bullies and not standing up for conservative values. Ryan Painter, who has personally worked with John Rustad, had this to say: Since the beginning, he's had one target: the BC NDP. He knows that British Columbians deserve a government that works for them, delivers on their promises, and doesn't tax them into poverty. He believes in his team and the power of a focused opposition. He knows who the enemy is. He knows BC deserves ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WARD STAMER: “Hopefully he’s actually listening to what people have to say, and not just showing up for a photo op”

In his latest travels across the province, BC Forest Minister Ravi Parmar touched down in the Okanagan. A trip essentially, he said, to be on the ground meeting industry people. I read what he had to say, and about how he has been tasked with getting more timber to market. Let me start by saying, “ He hasn’t been tasked. He and Premier Eby guaranteed 45 million cubic metres of available wood fibre – they guaranteed that .” BC Timber Sales is a government agency within the provincial forest’s ministry, which is responsible for managing a portion of the province's Crown timber; specifically, 20 percent of the province's annual allowable cut. Unfortunately, BC Timber Sales did not provide anywhere near that amount last year, it was just 12.2 percent. Three years ago, BC mills cut 52 million metres of wood, bringing in nearly $2 billion dollars to the provincial treasury. That figure doesn’t include the taxes from 55,700 people directly employed in the industry, nor from the tens o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Conservative Opposition demonstrates focused and policy-oriented approach in first four weeks of the legislative session

In the first four weeks of the legislative session, the Conservative Official Opposition has scored significant policy wins as it proves every day that the Conservative team has fresh ideas and real-world experience to bring to the table. At the same time, the NDP government has been listless, struggling to find a policy agenda that addresses the problems that British Columbians are facing. “This NDP government led by David Eby has tried to do everything under the sun to distract from their disastrous fiscal record and the fact that they are utterly out of ideas,” said Conservative Opposition Leader John Rustad. “They’ve tried to use the U.S. President to deflect from their eye-popping $11 billion deficit, the worst business confidence in the country, and the fact that they’ve created almost zero private sector jobs. This is no way to run a province or an economy.” Since the legislative session started on February 18th with the Throne Speech, the opposition...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more