Contributors Stanley Hartt and Munir Sheikh on making budgets better;
Brian Lee Crowley asserts editorial independence
Ottawa, February 5, 2014 – In the February issue of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s flagship magazine, Inside Policy, MLI makes a stand for editorial independence, with an article by Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley that relates a regrettable episode with one of the magazine’s now former corporate supporters, Air Canada. “(W)e we believe it is important that it be known that the Macdonald-Laurier Institute – which has worked hard to establish a solid reputation at home and abroad – will continue to do what it has always done: to speak out clearly and fearlessly in the pursuit of the very best public policy for Canadians”, Crowley writes.
With the federal budget to be revealed on Feb. 11, Stanley Hartt, a man with first-hand experience in the complexities of budget-making, demonstrates why the feds and the provinces need to have a good understanding of each other’s goals and intentions when crafting future budgets. And so that we can have a better sense of just how much the government is intervening in the functioning of the marketplace, Munir Sheikh factors in tax expenditures in a new measurement of the size of government, which reveals that it’s much more than program spending as a portion of GDP. Sheikh, who is former StatsCan Chief Statistician and former ADM at Finance Canada, has written a groundbreaking upcoming paper on the subject for MLI.
Also in this issue, health policy expert Audrey Laporte, author of a recent MLI paper, suggests that it’s time to put economics before politics in health care delivery. And MLI fellow Alex Wilner notes that the war against terrorism is never-ending. This means we must recognize the need for ongoing counterterrorism measures and accept that there will be challenges translating the strategy into meaningful and lasting successes. Finally, Senator Stephen Greene offers a prescription for enhancing the Upper Chamber’s credibility and effectiveness. He makes some intriguing recommendations aimed at reducing partisanship and reinforcing the Senate’s effectiveness and legitimacy.
These articles and many others, including pointed commentary from MLI staff, authors and fellows, round out your latest helping of leading public policy work.
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Inside Policy, edited by James Anderson, is published six times a year. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute is the only non-partisan, independent national public policy think tank in Ottawa focusing on the full range of issues that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
For more information, please contact David Watson, managing editor and communications director, at 613-482-8327 x. 103 or email at david.watson@macdonaldlaurier.ca. On Twitter @MLInstitute
