As the cultural edifices of western civilization are torn down one by one, there’s one institution whose prestige and authority continues to grow – science. Respect for scientists has, in many quarters, been transformed into a form of worship. And questioning their authority akin to heresy. Yet this confidence is often misplaced. A disturbing number of scientists have been proven to be charlatans, their methods slipshod and their results bogus. Surveying numerous disciplines, Peter Shawn Taylor explains the implications of what’s known as the “replication crisis” and reveals how science is trying to fix itself. Even non-scientists should be paying attention.

Taxes in Western countries were traditionally meant to raise money for necessary government expenditures. They weren’t supposed to shape individual behaviour, let alone attempt to turn taxpayers into better human beings. Free-market economists later added the principle that taxes should seek to minimize damage and distortion to both the economy and taxpayers. So what should we make of a new tax that is essentially moralistic in purpose, damaging to those least able to afford it and likely doomed to failure? Peter Shawn Taylor delves into debt-ridden Newfoundland and Labrador’s plan for a new tax on sugary beverages, and the formidable array of international evidence that argues against it.

What are the attractions of an electric vehicle? Beyond the cool aura of modernity and virtue-signaling, there’s also the financial angle. Buyers of gasoline-powered cars and trucks pay sticker price in the showroom and then shell out for hefty fuel taxes once they’re on the road. EV owners get massive subsidies and then pay nothing to zip around town. But what happens when EVs become as commonplace as smartphones? Peter Shawn Taylor looks at the experience in jurisdictions already wrestling with the disappearance of gas tax revenue and warns Canadian drivers to brace themselves for some big changes in how they use the roads.

Political theory suggests that freedom and equity are opposing concepts. Allowing greater individual autonomy is assumed to curtail fairness for the less advantaged, and vice versa. Not so when it comes to the 2021 electoral debate over childcare – one of the few areas of sharp contrast between the two main parties. Peter Shawn Taylor takes a close look at the Liberals’ proposed national childcare system and the Conservatives’ refundable childcare tax credit and finds one option delivers not only greater choice for all parents, but superior support for low-income families as well as the promise of new spaces.

Airports are not just crucial pieces of transportation infrastructure, they’re also economic engines for the cities and regions they serve. But airports require vast amounts of capital to build, run and modernize. With governments at all levels mired in debt, who will supply that capital? Across most of the world, it’s private-sector investors – something expressly forbidden in Canada. Drawing on expert opinion and insight, Peter Shawn Taylor makes the case for allowing this country’s airports to join the modern world by accessing equity markets. But first they’ll have to free themselves from Canada’s antiquated and burdensome airport policy.

The Trudeau government’s $30 billion plan to transform childcare nationwide is focused on more than just families. It also wanders into an ideological battlefield by declaring the non-profit sector preferable to private operators. Ottawa is thus ignoring the vital role played by childcare owners in expanding supply and meeting the diverse needs of working parents. In a deep dive into Canada’s complex childcare system, Peter Shawn Taylor talks to several remarkable female entrepreneurs and other key figures to reveal the reality and necessity of for-profit childcare. 

Nearly all our food comes from privately-owned farms and businesses. The same goes for our clothes, homes and vehicles – all manufactured and sold with the expectation of a profit. So why the animosity shown entrepreneurs who choose to operate nursing homes and other care facilities? Peter Shawn Taylor reviews two recent Ontario government investigations into the performance of the province’s nursing home sector during Covid-19 and finds a surprising vote of confidence for the contribution made by the private sector in caring for the province’s seniors.

Surely everyone can agree on the necessities of the democratic process – engaged voters, secret ballots and no dirty tricks. So why are these rules, considered essential to picking governments, frequently ignored when it comes to picking unions across Canada? While most provinces require a mandatory vote to determine if workers wish to join a union, some omit this crucial step. Giving voice to a group of concerned small-business owners and their workers, Peter Shawn Taylor reveals how “card-check” union certification is abusing workplace democracy in Ontario’s vital construction sector.

The news business is at its least reliable when reporting on itself. Coverage of a media company’s own financial results, for example, is inevitably glowing and upbeat, whatever the actual figures might say. The same thing holds for concerns over “fake news”. Seizing on recent panic about the spread of misinformation, and thanks to a generous federal grant, Canada’s legacy newspapers have devised their own system for identifying fake news. But as Peter Shawn Taylor discovers, the criteria strangely celebrate their own product at the expense of their many online competitors. And much of it contradicts the basic rules of good journalism.

One might think that with Canada’s formidable array of pandemic restrictions, lockdowns, curfews, shuttered businesses and myriad other prohibited places and activities, the last thing Canadians need is another incentive to stay home and do nothing. And yet demands for paid sick days are now reaching a fevered pitch. Alongside labour and the political left, even some business groups claim to support the idea. As Peter Shawn Taylor finds, however, European-style sick-day benefits are no panacea. In fact, they threaten great harm to Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery.