The B.C. government this week introduced what it hails as North America's first carbon tax, but many will see it mostly as just another hike in the gas tax, and for good reason. The gas tax, rising to 7.24¢ per litre over four years, will do next to nothing apart from increasing the provincial take – Europe with its sky-high gas taxes and ever-increasing auto use demonstrates the ineffectiveness of gas taxes in curbing the car.

Mike Harris was one of the greatest redistributionists in Ontario history. He left behind a self-perpetuating property-tax mess, and also the highest property-tax regime in the Western world. Now property owners have had enough and Harris's Liberal successor, Dalton McGuinty, vows to clean it up.  Full story »