Lee Harding: The COVID cure was far worse than the disease

After the first of two weeks to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases, President Donald Trump said, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.” He was right, yet that ill fate prevailed in the U.S., Canada, and much of the world.

An important paper released July 19 by 3 Canadian academics Denis Rancourt, Joseph Hickey, and Christian Linard in Correlation Research proved this when looking at how many more people died than usual (excess mortality)  in 125 countries with a total of 2.7 billion people.

Ian Madsen: Heat pumps more costly, less efficient than gas furnaces

A recent study (by Andrew Montfort of the Global Warming Policy Foundation) addressing the Net Zero policies of the United Kingdom government has calculated that heat pumps, which Climate ‘activists’ advocate to replace home heating (in that nation, and in Canada), do none of the things that their proponents claim.   Heat pumps are neither more efficient than gas boilers, nor cheaper, and do a very expensive job of reducing carbon dioxide, ‘CO2’, emissions.  Heat pumps eliminate those emissions at a cost of over £300 – ~CAD$400 – per tonne of CO2, which far exceeds the estimated cost of those emissions to global Gross Domestic Product.  In summary, heat pumps are the antithesis of a true solution to a questionable ‘problem’.

Sir Roger Douglas: Timeless Wisdom – The Politics of Successful Structural Reform

It’s a well-known pattern in public policy – profligate politicians damaging their economies with out-of-control spending, massive borrowing and higher taxes – inevitably leading to fiscal crisis, sharp declines to growth and ultimately rapidly falling currency value and living standards. 

How do countries recover from such negative downward policy spirals?  The answer is bold and quality “structural reform” to right size government, eliminate special interest privilege and create an environment for strong private sector growth. 

The following article was written in 1990 by Sir Roger Douglas, who was the finance minister in the Lange Labour Government between 1984 and 1988. He was the driving force in rescuing his country from financial collapse with bold structural policy reforms which became known as “Rogernomics”.   Sir Roger was voted as one of the most influential New Zealanders of the past century.

Brian Giesbrecht: Canada’s National Hysteria in the 21st Century

 

Mass hysteria is the spontaneous manifestation of a particular behaviour by many people. There are numerous historical examples: Middle Age nuns at a convent in France spontaneously began to meow like cats; at another convent, nuns began biting one another. In 13th-century Germany, spontaneous dancing broke out and entire city populations danced until exhausted. But perhaps the best-known mass hysteria was the Salem Witch Trials, where people, seized by visions, accused others of bewitching them. Many were executed.