US and Canadian airports competing for passenger dollars.

The numerous interventions carried out by the federal government to encourage the establishment of a 4th wireless telephony player across the country will hurt consumers by undermining innovation in this industry. This is all the more worrisome given that important technological revolutions are in the works that will require billions of dollars of investments from the country’s telecommunications companies. This is one of the conclusions of the 2015 edition of The State of Competition in Canada’s Telecommunications Industry.

Ottawa's interventions in the telecommunications sector.

While Quebec’s public health care system struggles to respond adequately to the needs of patients, and the cost of the system continues to rise rapidly, expanding the role of pharmacists in offering front-line services is without a doubt a step in the right direction. These increased responsibilities are likely to improve patients’ access to care and lead to savings, which the public system desperately needs.

The privatization of Hydro One.

Four areas of the health care industry in Canada that are largely private and that work well.

The maple syrup monopoly in Quebec.

The recurring problems with which Canadian patients are faced, such as overcrowded emergency rooms and the inability of seeing a doctor when you need to, regularly occupy the front pages of our daily newspapers. In international rankings, Canada systematically finds itself at the bottom of the pack, among the countries where waiting times for health care are the longest. Yet there exists another health care system, an essentially private one that works well but that does not always get the credit it deserves.

In the years since the financial crisis of 2008, the free market has taken a beating in the marketplace of ideas. Yet the simple fact remains that the more economic freedom a government leaves in the hands of its people, the better off those people are, not only in terms of basic material well-being, but also in terms of social and individual indicators of human wellbeing. This Economic Note provides a brief overview of economic freedom around the globe.

The positive impact of economic freedom on prosperity and on various social indicators