omjensen

Actually, this show was on at my house a lot. Only because it came on after Coronation Street (which my wife watches! Not me -- honest!) and we were sometimes too lazy or busy doing other things to bother changing the channel. I suspect a fair chunk of their ratings came from this fact. The show did really, really, really, really, really suck. Sorry, but it was bad. Almost as bad as the current incarnation of This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Oh, I see. So the good news isn't really good news. How typically liberal. If the facts don't fit the hypothesis, just qualify the facts. Well, isn't it interesting that Alberta and Saskatchewan also have pro-business governments (at least compared to the other provinces). Oh, but of course that's got nothing to do with it. It's just the oil sands. Whatever.

Interesting and sadly true points about property rights. And, Blur, I liked the link to the moral arguments in favour of free trade. But I'm guessing Topaz' original question had to do with economic benefits. And here once again, the answer is an unequivocal yes. The benefits of free trade through the principle of comparative advantage were laid out years ago, 1817 to be exact, in David Ricardo's "On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation." Here's the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage. And it just stands to reason -- how can it be bad for Canadians to have more options to choose from when making purchases, or to have larger markets to sell to? What is the downside? Of course, certain, non-competitive industries might be hurt. But we live in a welfare state. How bad does it get for these people before the majority of them find work elsewhere in new, more competitive industries? And why should Canadians, already taxed nearly to the breaking point, be forced to pay additonal taxes in the form of higher prices created by tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers, just to protect some non-competitive industries? It's just a waste of precious resources. Topaz begins his post with "We all know about the Free Trade and how its not doing the job creation job but losing jobs." I find that an odd way to begin a post when we have the lowest unemployment rate in over 30 years. Sorry Topaz, we know nothing of the sort.