Conservative values series: Economic freedom requires economic responsibility

Generally speaking, most small-c conservatives believe in economic freedom; the idea that each and every one of us should have the right to benefit from our own labour and control our own property as we see fit.

As such, we believe that governments must restrain itself from interfering in the free movement of labour, capital, and goods. Think of economic freedom as the polar opposite of central planning, where governments seek to control and coerce markets into meeting arbitrary goals set by authority figures.

Economic freedom is not just a slogan. It is something that can be quantified and tracked, using a variety of indicators, including the size of government, the effectiveness of courts, freedom of trade, and regulatory efficiency. High economic freedom rankings are important because they are closely linked with the reduction of poverty, longer life expectancy, and improved quality of life.

Historically speaking, Canadians have enjoyed relatively high levels of economic freedom, although our nation has been slipping of late according to two recent reports.

Both the Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of Economic Freedom and the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World report rank Canada in the top-20 globally. The Heritage Foundation shows Canada falling slowly since 2011, with a steady downturn over the past four years. The Fraser Institute report illustrates a long-term slide dating back to 1980, with a similar strong downturn starting in 2019.

Not surprisingly, both reports note a similar cause: growth in the size of government. The Fraser Institute ranks Canada 99th out of 165 countries on this front, with the Heritage Foundation marking Canada at 35 per cent in government spending and 32.2 per cent in fiscal health.

This, of course, brings us to the other side of the economic freedom coin: economic responsibility.

Simply put, governments have a responsibility to nurture the economic freedom of their citizens. This means creating a competitive economy, where individuals and businesses succeed based on what they do, and not whom they know. It means ensuring a level playing field where unnecessary taxes and regulations are minimized. It means respecting property rights. It means getting the government out of the business of being in business.

On this front, Canadian governments are failing the public – even Alberta’s. According to the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America report, Alberta has slipped to 47th place among the 92 subnational jurisdictions in North America.

In fact, the so-called Alberta advantage only exists when you compare our province to other Canadian provinces as we rank 50thin terms of taxes. We are also below average in labour market freedom and the freedom to trade internationally, ranking 51st in both categories.

These are not good numbers – and definitely not something our government should be bragging about. Rather, they are a call to action for Alberta to get back to the small government policies that served our province so well in the past. This means not just holding the line on taxes, it means cutting taxes.

Alberta, like every other Canadian government, needs to spend less so that it can tax less.

In addition, like every Canadian government, Alberta needs to get its bureaucratic central planners out of the way. The more government interferes in the free movement of labour, capital, and goods, the more our quality-of-life declines.

In short, if we want more economic freedom, we need our governments to start exercising economic responsibility.

#ableg #medhat