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William Watson

William Watson

Financial Post

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William Watson: So much for universities' 'quiet and still air of delightful studies'

If protesters had brought trucks, not tents, and honked horns, I suspect few in the McGill community would have objected to their being removed You...

02.05.2024 20

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Trudeau will force a business case for EVs whether people like it or not

Whether there’s a business case for EVs is a question most of the rest of the world currently seems to be asking. But not Canada You can save this...

30.04.2024 20

Financial Post

William Watson

Israel Prepares Forces as Conflict With Hezbollah Intensifies

Israel is stepping up preparations for a potential all-out war with Hezbollah, as the risk of a devastating new phase in the country’s conflict with...

25.04.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Let's stop citing the OECD's 35-year growth forecast

Conservatives should be wary of international organizations bearing cross-country comparisons of stylized data. Facts, not factoids, please You can...

25.04.2024 20

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William Watson

William Watson: The gatekeepers go for widespread 'unlocking' in Budget 2024

Ottawa says it wants to unlock Canadians' potential and productivity. For many of these things, it's what's in the way You can save this article by...

23.04.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: The state has no place building the bedrooms of the nation

For its own good, and for the good of us all, the government of Canada should get out of the housing business, not deeper into it You can save this...

19.04.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Trudeau's pre-budget spend-a-ganza leaves little to leak

What’s left for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to say when she stands up in the Commons next Tuesday? You can save this article by registering...

09.04.2024 7

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: With Ottawa doing everything, who needs provinces anymore? 

From daycare to denticare to pharmacare to school lunches to housing projects, Ottawa is calling all the shots. Why still have provinces? You can save...

04.04.2024 6

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Do we really want risk-loving prime ministers?

The risks some leaders take have big downsides. Are we quite sure we don't prefer incrementalists who just want to provide good government? You can...

02.04.2024 7

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William Watson

William Watson: Ottawa’s tax on underused housing overuses the tax system

Starting a war against foreign owners of housing isn't a good idea in a country whose own citizens own lots of housing in warmer climes You can save...

28.03.2024 9

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William Watson

William Watson: Please, Ottawa, don’t subsidize movie theatres

We shouldn't have an official government position on whether people watch movies in cinemas or by streaming them at home You can save this article by...

26.03.2024 7

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William Watson

William Watson: Mulroney’s wisdom on taxes — lower the rate, broaden the base

The GST isn't good because it raises tons of revenue. It's good because it does so at much less cost than higher income or corporate taxes You can...

20.03.2024 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Trudeau embraces the market, Poilievre class warfare

Trudeau should heed his own advice about 'heavy-handed' government and Poilievre should help all Canadians, not just the 'working class' We spend so...

19.03.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Two more cheers for globalization 

New studies suggest global inequality has fallen faster since 1980 than thought, while U.S. firms did just fine after China's WTO entry “The world...

14.03.2024 5

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Poilievre challenges the press. Good. It’s time somebody did

Vigorous back-and-forths reveal much more than 10-second clips of the Tory leader, or any leader, wrapped in reporters' personal opinions I happened...

12.03.2024 6

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Mulroney’s 'Big Canada' policies are still right for this country

Open markets, deregulation, privatization and low tax rates on broad tax bases would serve as well in the 2020s as they did in the 1980s In his 2007...

07.03.2024 9

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: For the good of the country, buy non-Canadian

Buying local the thin edge of the protectionist wedge I got what looked like a nice email from Amazon last week. There were no spelling mistakes, so I...

27.02.2024 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: How much resilience do Europe and Russia have left? 

Can Russia keep holding out against western sanctions and Europe against reduced energy supplies? Joe Biden says he will be announcing a big new...

22.02.2024 6

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William Watson

William Watson: Tale of two confabs: COP28 psychodrama vs. WTO grunt work

Because countries actually have to live by whatever they agree to, next week's WTO ministerial won't be as dramatic as last fall's COP28 Elsewhere in...

20.02.2024 9

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: The Libertarian’s dilemma: How to make free people smarter?

Gambling ads are everywhere and addiction is on the rise. People need to be free to make bad choices but better at avoiding them My favourite Super...

15.02.2024 9

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: At issue with CBC's At Issue on trans issues

Canada's most-watched political panel doesn't seem to understand parents' anxiety about not having clear guardrails for kids The country’s...

08.02.2024 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Cutting university budgets is always messy and political

Most of your costs are labour and most of your labour is tenured, unionized or both. But if a deficit is unsustainable it has to end Like thousands of...

06.02.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: What was very old is new again with 'new industrial policy'

The new policy suffers from the same problems the old did: rent-seeking, copycat duplication and an unreadable future The first IMF working paper of...

30.01.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Subsidize Montreal's night people? Why not? Everyone else gets subsidies

A group that promotes nightlife is upset its $3 million grant is being eliminated. Montrealers shouldn't lose sleep over it “Toronto with French”...

25.01.2024 9

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Warts and all, democracy is still best (even if it's Trump vs. Biden)

Just ask the Russians, Chinese or Iranians whether they'd like to choose their leaders, too Ain’t democracy grand? Fewer than one in 100 Americans...

23.01.2024 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: From encampments to protests, public spaces shouldn’t be privatized

People shouldn't be allowed to take over parks and public thoroughfares, depriving others of their use In a news release last week Toronto police laid...

18.01.2024 5

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: All Friedmanites now? If only!

Milton Friedman's ideas probably aren't as influential as a new book suggests but we'd have much better public policy if they were In 1914, the poet...

16.01.2024 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Harvard and the high economic cost of potholes

New study using Uber drivers' 'vertical accelerometer' data suggests rough roads are costly for economy Montreal’s roads are under permanent repair,...

11.01.2024 5

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Honest, dear editors, a machine didn't write this column

Cheating at university — with plagiarism and ChatGPT compositions — continues to evolve. So, too, does cheating detection As Joe Oliver suggests...

09.01.2024 7

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Keep Ottawa out of the charging-station business

If charging your EV is a hassle, that's a reason not to buy one. It's not a reason for the government to have to provide stations New word for me for...

05.01.2024 7

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Universities shouldn't pay athletes, no matter how much they’re worth

Universities are communities of scholars, not running backs. Students should study, not play spectator sports for money U. S. college football is...

03.01.2024 9

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Glimmers of truth in 2023 bode well for 2024

People seemed more willing to challenge governing shibboleths than they have been in some time. That's a good sign for the New Year Being a...

28.12.2023 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: The ghost of referendums past and who really won in 1995

With new measures reducing the rights of English-speakers, and no response from Ottawa, the Quebec separatists may as well have won After roast turkey...

26.12.2023 7

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Trudeau for Christmas? No thanks, I’ll take the real 'It’s a Wonderful Life'

Clips suggest the prime minister's Christmas Day chat will be drearily partisan. Who needs that? It's supposed to be a holiday I wrote last time about...

21.12.2023 4

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Bans are for socialists. Tories live and let live

In 1942, you could see the government taking over the car industry and telling it what to produce. But in peacetime in 2023 that's crazy If you’ve...

19.12.2023 5

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: The three wise women were right. Universities need free speech

The Princeton, Harvard and MIT presidents grilled by Congress over anti-Semitism were hoist by their own hypocrisy In the Christian calendar, Epiphany...

14.12.2023 7

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Alberta’s CO2 is the same as everybody else's so why a separate cap for oil and gas? 

Special measures for oil and gas mean the sacrifice in cutting carbon will be greater in that industry than everywhere else These days an intro...

12.12.2023 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: What's behind labourers' declining share of national income? It’s complicated

A new study looks at this worldwide phenomenon and finds we're not actually sure what's going on One of the great evils of patriarchal post-rational...

07.12.2023 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Failure is under-rated

It’s not actually true that if you work hard and do all the right things, your business is obliged to succeed One thing I liked about early Donald...

05.12.2023 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: The fall economic statement: Goodbye, red tape. Hello, green

Ottawa wants to make life easier for businesses by cutting red tape. But it's also considering mandatory carbon reports. Net? Zero No fewer than four...

30.11.2023 6

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: What my petition about the Israel-Hamas war would say

Canada is neither Israel nor Palestine. People tied closely to both places live here, with the proportions of each changing over the decades One...

28.11.2023 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Canadians are libertarian about football. Why not everything else? 

A persistent aversion to subsidizing pro sports Even if you’re not a lifelong Montreal Alouettes fan, as I am, you might have thought that was a...

21.11.2023 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Americans might be stuck with a Biden-Trump rematch

Voters won't entrust the presidency to a relative unknown The 2024 U.S. presidential race began pretty much the day after 2020’s ended. Some...

16.11.2023 30

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Alberta should take a random walk out of the CPP

Leaving the Canada Pension Plan isn't unpatriotic but a province should have good reason for going. To pursue hands-off, barebones investing is one If...

14.11.2023 9

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Short and prosaic, the King's Speech provides a model for Canada

Basically a list of upcoming bills, Tuesday's speech by Charles III should serve as a template for our own speeches from the throne Elsewhere in FP...

09.11.2023 2

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Carbon tax may pervert market theory but enables market allocations

What do you do when supply and demand don't set a price? In his column last Friday commenting in part on my column last Thursday, my friend and...

07.11.2023 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Liberals' carbon tax fiddle proves virtue of ... carbon tax

Canadians' white-hot reaction to Liberal finagling with the carbon tax shows they want neutral, anonymous, decentralized decision-making The Trudeau...

02.11.2023 10

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: In the Mideast, for now, give peace a pass

Progress happens, even on peace, even in the Middle East, as history since the Six-Day War shows. But it is slow and now is not its season I realize...

31.10.2023 7

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: The hard-to-figure 'known unknowns' of a war in Gaza

For every civilian you kill attacking Gaza, how much hatred do you generate? But if you opt for restraint, do your enemies see weakness? What has been...

24.10.2023 8

Financial Post

William Watson

William Watson: Axe the carbon tax? No, give all taxes a shave

Almost all taxes cause economic damage. Instead of axing just one, Conservatives should cut back the whole lot Maybe you’ve seen Pierre...

17.10.2023 6

Financial Post

William Watson

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