Speeches

The Myths of Equalization – November 1, 2012
I will deal with the myths associated with the current equalization system and then devote the largest part of my remarks to the consequences of these myths for Canadians and the politics of actually changing.

Financial Reality is Needed in Maritime Canada – April 3, 2012
I’d like to start my presentation with a warning. The warning is that I’m going to speak very frankly about difficult issues. I will be taking fundamental issue with the approach the federal government, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Manitoba have been taking in relation to the many subsidies the Government of Canada provides to regions.

Revitalizing Manitoba: – July 25, 2011
"I call this whole series an intellectual exploration…my continuing attempt to make sure I never find work in this province. I laugh, I’m smiling, but it’s not that funny. So let me just go back briefly to the diagnosis from three years ago. The idea of Manitoba as a supplicant society. I’ll explain more what that’s about, and put that whole criticism in this larger philosophical context, and then get to the very concrete suggestions that I have attempted to make for revitalizing our society."

Regional Subsidies Damage Ordinary Ontarians – February 5, 2010
“I want to tackle a taboo subject today: how one of Canada’s most sacred cows—regional subsidies—is, in fact, chewing up the country’s economic foundations, national unity and future prospects.”

Learning From New Zealand's Local Government Experience – May 29, 2009
Reforms of local government rarely, if ever are advanced by local governments themselves. Invariably reform will only occur as it did in New Zealand if higher government driven by determined reformers do it, not the units of local government themselves.

Allan Gotlieb on Canada's Culture of Ideas – May 27, 2009
"I think that it is fair to say that the success of the Frontier Centre signals the success of the independent think tank movement in Canada."

Ontario Premier McGuinty's Speech to the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce – May 14, 2008
Premier Dalton McGuinty outlines the flaws in Canada's transfer payment calculations. An excerpt from his speech to the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce on May 8th.

Waves of Unthinking Money – November 21, 2007
Text of David MacKinnon's speech to the Frontier Centre on how unsustainable regional subsidies are starting to break an Ontario economy beset by severe competitive pressures.

Moving the Modern Socialist Agenda Forward – October 25, 2005
A New Zealand political operative describes his history with that country's Labour Party, and why they adapted traditional socialism to accomodate a free market philosophy.

The Help that Hurts (Speech by Brian Crowley) – June 9, 2005
The President of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, Brian Lee Crowley discusses how equalization harms Saskatchewan in a Frontier Centre speech in Regina, April 20, 2005

Equalization:Welfare Trap or Helping Hand (Brian Crowley Speech) – June 8, 2005
Brian Lee Crowley, President of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, leads a seminar on equalization policy in Winnipeg, April 21, 2005.

A Government of our Own (Speech by Chief John Miswagon) – May 27, 2005
Chief John Miswagon of Cross Lake First Nation describes the innovative democratic process his people have devised.

Let Aboriginals Join the Real Economy – December 30, 2002
The lack of property rights is one cause of Aboriginal poverty. This speech suggests it blocks that community from participating in the real economy.

How Rent Control Killed Affordable Housing in Winnipeg – October 9, 2002
Senior Policy Analyst Dennis Owens discusses how rent control hurts the poor

*What's Wrong with Medicare and How to Fix It – February 6, 2002
The authorities in Stockholm remain just as committed to government funding of health care as they ever were. They've simply found a better way to do it.

'Father of Equalization' says programme can be destroyed by politics and design flaws – October 25, 2001
Professor James Buchanan, 1986 Nobel Laureate in Economics, says that equalization programmes can be captured and destroyed by politics and bad design. Known as one of the "fathers of equalization" because his early writings were highly influential in the design of equalization programmes such as Canada's, Buchanan revisited his arguments of 50 years ago in Montreal today.

Fiscal Equalization Revisited – October 25, 2001
A luncheon talk at "Equalization: Helping Hand or Welfare Trap?", a conference co-sponsored by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Montreal Economic Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Montreal, 25 October 2001

John Bruton, Former Prime Minister of Ireland – May 8, 2000
Many analysts who seek to find the reasons for Ireland's recent phenomenal economic success start with things that happened in the comparatively recent past - 1987 is suggested as a start date in one partisan version of events. My own belief is that many of the ingredients of Ireland's success originated further back.

High Performance Government in New Zealand – March 14, 2000
I'm delighted to be here today to share with you some of New Zealand's experience with public sector reform. These reforms are an important part of our recent history. They are something that I am proud to say that I have been a part of - both the reforms and my parliamentary career began with the 1984 election.

The Freedom to Innovate – September 11, 1999
Although it is the Manitoba blue print for educational reform, is the result of the larger educational reform movement which is occurring throughout North America. This reform movement is being driven by forces which are outside the educational system.