OUR COLUMNISTS
MOST RECENT
Politics by Numbers
> Promoting gendered inequality
By: Robert Sweeny | March 8, 2012
Last month we saw how policy changes by both the provincial and federal governments has led to our society becoming more unequal. This month, I examine how pens... Read More
> Anatomy of a boom, part two
By: Robert Sweeny | February 16, 2012
Between 2005 and 2009 assessed incomes in Newfoundland jumped 49%. But as we saw the rich did not get richer and the poor poorer, because government regulation ... Read More
> Anatomy of a boom, part 1
By: Robert Sweeny | February 10, 2012
People at all income levels have shared equally in this bonanza. The rich did not get richer and the poor poorer. Almost everyone’s income has risen and in ro... Read More
> How is our 1% different?
By: Robert Sweeny | January 2, 2012
Wages and salaries account for most of the income of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. This is as true for the wealthiest among us, the 1% of OccupyNL, as it is... Read More
> Economic Action Plan pt. 4
By: Robert Sweeny | April 25, 2011
The Economic Action Plan was the centerpiece of the budget presented to Parliament when it first met after the infamous December 2008 prorogation. The Plan appe... Read More
> Economic Action Plan pt. 3
By: Robert Sweeny | April 18, 2011
Listening to the leaders’ debate, you might think Stephen Harper’s policy has been to lower taxes. He has, indeed, overseen $20 billion in reductions, but t... Read More
> Economic Action Plan pt. 2
By: Robert Sweeny | April 15, 2011
We have all heard of the $40 billion Economic Action Plan (EAP), but how many of us have ever heard of the Extraordinary Financing Framework (EFF)? Established ... Read More
> Economic Action Plan, pt. 1
By: Robert Sweeny | April 11, 2011
If you still watch television, then you have probably seen the ad. A teenage girl kicks the soccer ball into the top corner of the net as a voice-over reminds y... Read More
> Have-no-more
By: Robert Sweeny | March 24, 2011
Almost half of our provincial budget now comes from non-renewable resource revenue. If our recent past was dominated by the shift in status from have-not to hav... Read More
> Refugees
By: Robert Sweeny | March 14, 2011
Federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s use of his office for partisan electoral purposes has touched off a storm of controversy, as indee... Read More
> The wage gap
By: Robert Sweeny | March 8, 2011
Women became half of the paid workforce in Canada for the first time in 2009. Already by 2007, 60% of the people graduating from our universities were women, wh... Read More
> RRSPs
By: Robert Sweeny | February 28, 2011
With a rapidly aging population and growing household debt, pensions have become a major public policy issue in Canada. We have three types of pension plans: th... Read More
> Tax Cuts
By: Robert Sweeny | February 21, 2011
The recent release of the final tax tables for 2008 by the Canada Revenue Agency allows us, for the first time, to know what the tax cuts announced in the 2007 ... Read More
