Rattan’s bad economics

I don’t know much, but I know this: if you want to do something about climate change, the best and cheapest option is a carbon tax. You might not like it, but it’s true. There’s nothing better. A carbon tax  works.

So it made me sad to see Jasveen Rattan, our Conservative candidate, say  “Climate change is a real, global problem that will require decisive action at the federal level. It is time for Canada to act as a real leader and bring forward new, innovative solutions.” (My emphasis.)

The Conservatives’ platform is bizarrely Marxist. They propose “emissions standards for major emitters”. They want to manage industries and set standards and targets,  like Soviet commissars did. If they want this to work (which I doubt) it will be much more expensive than a tax.

It’s a far better idea to let the market figure out how to avoid pollution or pay for it. It’s sad that the free-market, fiscally-prudent Conservatives can’t figure that out.

The Liberals created a carbon tax, and there is no reason for a new solution. Taxes let the free market come up with efficient solutions to a negative externality. They cannot be improved upon—it’s a mathematical fact.

 

 

Run for the United Way

Supercoffee is hosting a fun run for the United Way this weekend. Lace up and go!

The run will start at 9 am on Sunday, October 6 at the Caplan’s parking lot. There’s a $20 donation to join in, and supercoffee will be donating snacks and coffee, god bless their souls. Your correspondent will not be there, because it is his birthday (among other reasons, including but not limited to the running and waking up parts).

Greenland Farms update

Weston Asset Management, the builders behind the Greenland Farms development, have released their plans for the site. Count me among the unimpressed.

The developers would like to build two 29-storey towers from a shared podium.  The towers would be built upon the façade of some of the buildings along Weston Road.

To my eye, the buildings are uninventive, large, and rather ugly. I don’t like how they assimilate and loom over the older heritage buildings—it’s too literal an image of parasitic Toronto absorbing Weston for me to stomach.

 

Photos from the application

The building will have “592 residential units and 3991 square metres of non-residential space” with “174 vehicle parking spaces and 463 bicycle parking spaces” below ground.

I’m not designer, but I’d love to see a lower, broader building that looks repurposed from industry. It would be more true to our roots and look unlike the downtown glass canyons.

From StreetEasy

 

 

PPC candidate is Gerard Racine

The People’s Party of Canada announced their candidate for York South–Weston: Gerard Racine.

If Racine is going to campaign seriously (which I doubt), he has some work to do. His site contains no French translation (but a French button),  and the website equivalent of leaving the tags on your new jeans: “this is an example featured content slider” text on the main page.

And, to my never-ending despair, it misspells York South–Weston as “York-South Weston”. Not. Even. Close.

The PPC is the newest federal party, way-far right, and an outside chance. Their policy includes: “attacks against ‘radical multiculturalism,’ climate change science and foreign aid”.

Rac