Quote of the Day: “The key insight of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.” Milton Friedman
Wow – a huge total of 16 pages in the print version of TheRecord today. Really???
Until the end of January this year, Heather Scoffield was the Ottawa Bureau Chief and Economics Columnist for The Toronto Star. She is now the Senior Vice President, Strategy at the Business Council of Canada. In a press release announcing her position, the BCC said that Scoffield will help “define, pursue, and achieve its strategic priorities and objectives as it works to build a better future for all Canadians.” Of course she will. Scoffield wasn’t much of an “economist” as far as I’m concerned. Along with her TorStar buddies, she never saw a government tax and spend program she didn’t like. Oh well. But today, instead of an Editorial, she has an op-ed that continues, along with her TorStar buddies, to promote the bloated, abusive and obnoxious Trudeau budget. She calls the budget “exciting and appropriate” with its view of a “green” future. All I see is a budget with a “red” future.
Former, failed Mayor of Toronto, John Sewell performs some statistical slight-of-hand to try to suggest that: “More police officers doesn’t add up to less crime”. He brings up a “famous study done in Kansas City in the 1970s” to bolster his point. Oh boy. Of course, the tells us that: “The only way to reduce random crime is to address the root causes of it, usually defined by social indicators: inequality, affordable housing, programs for young children and families.” He missed the disastrous effects that our current climate change crisis has on society. (cough) Too bad he didn’t look into our catch and release so-called justice system for some answers.
Have I ever mentioned before that not a single one of my Letters to the Editor (LTTE) have ever made it to print? Why, yes I have. Many times, I believe. And that’s why I usually don’t comment on LTTE – they are hand picked to supplement a TorStar Editorial talking point. Today, we have three interesting LTTE. First up is George Burrett of Kitchener who quotes David Johnston in his book Trust: “An uninformed citizen is a voter who can be manipulated into voting for some strange things without even knowing that their vote is being exploited.” (There is a punctuation mistake in the letter but let’s not be Karen’s about it.) But an excellent point by Johnston. Maybe Mr. Burrett should read every last Editorial and op-ed on these pages over the last few years and count the number of times Trudeau and his corrupt government have been praised while condemning any and all conservative viewpoints. Next up is Eldon Killen also of Kitchener. His LTTE is almost an exact copy of the one he wrote on 04 May 2022. He talks about the Ontario health surtax on individuals making over $20,000 and why it isn’t indexed to inflation. And finally, Mark Boughan of Cambridge has just a devastating letter where he sends Karen Littlewood, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation to the Principle’s Office for a brutal math error in her op-ed last Tuesday. Way Too Funny…
The Bridge Column’s formatting is messed up again. Seriously, doesn’t a single Editor play cards at TheRecord??? Annoying.