Author of Bad Data. Available in stores Jan 27, 2020. Fascinated with metrics. Measure what matters.
Calgary, AB, Canada
Joined July 2010
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As someone who wrote a book on performance metrics, this is a refreshing read. Not enough organizations think about the differences between goals and objectives or inputs and outputs. Good to see am organization that does!
New piece! There's been a surprising level of interest among our readers in "the business of think-tanks." Since you asked for it, here's a lengthy piece on how we think about and measure our performance and whether we're making a difference.
Read here: missingmiddleinitiative.ca/p…
Another case of Bad Data. Yes, Canadians pay more income tax than Americans. They also have more services covered, particularly health care. This metric is useless unless it accounts for the value public goods provided by tax.
If we compare PIT rates in the 10 Canadian provinces to the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, the scale of our problem becomes apparent.
Specifically, when ranking the top combined (federal and provincial/state) PIT rates in 2025, Canadian provinces hold nine of the top 10 highest rates among the 61 American and Canadian jurisdictions. Saskatchewan (at 15th highest) is the only province to escape the top 10.
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Although it’s useful to compare tax rates among countries, comparing just one tax and not others paints an incomplete picture. Do other countries rely more heavily on consumption taxes, or land taxes or fees? Do they provide similar services? A case of Bad Data.
"In 2024, Canada’s top combined (federal and provincial) PIT rate was the fifth-highest among the 38 high-income countries, as illustrated in Figure 1 below. Our combined PIT rate is higher than Australia (17th), the United Kingdom (20th) and the U.S. (23rd)." — @FraserInstitute
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The problem that many homeowners find is that when they sell their house, they also have to *buy* a new house. And that house is also now expensive. The problem with high housing prices is you don’t actually get to cash out, unless you leave the country. Cc @maxfawcett
Affordable housing and affordable commercial rents boost economies. Low barriers to entry and the ability to take risks is what business needs to innovate and thrive. More housing and more opportunities for small commercial spaces is a economic driver.
Had dinner with one of the world’s best bespoke tailors, who happens to be based in Seoul. He mentioned that a one-bedroom apartment in the city now runs about $1,000 a month—up from just $400 a decade ago. A good restaurant meal? Around $7. Compare that to $3,000/ month rent and $25 dinners in San Francisco.
This tailor taught himself the craft by studying books and now mentors young people entering the trade. That kind of passion-driven, craft-based work becomes nearly impossible in US cities unless we address the cost-of-living crisis—especially housing. And it’s not just about tailoring. Any vocation outside engineering, law, or finance—whether you're a musician, artist, or skilled tradesperson—is increasingly unsustainable in urban areas because of skyrocketing rents.
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This is a terrible take. Just because expenditure doesn’t yield direct returns doesn’t mean it isn’t investment. Education, pure research, healthcare, infrastructure all create returns. Those returns are dispersed, so the private sector doesn’t invest in them.
Governments should stop calling all spending “investment.” Real investment earns a return. If it did, the private sector would already be doing it. If it doesn’t, it’s just spending—call it what it is.
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This should be standard for all politicians: Blind trusts. A politician shouldn’t have to give up their investments, but they shouldn’t be able to influence them. Blind trusts are the way to ensure this.
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From the brilliant @JerusalemDemsas on why we can’t build green energy projects (excerpt from “On the Housing Crisis”). On point. Modern environmentalism was built to stop projects, not advocate for them - a large reason why housing, transit, green energy is so difficult.
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This is good messaging. Just like @Sightline ‘s “cruel musical chairs” about housing, this conveys the concept of passenger capacity in a clear and effective way. Cities need more of this. Clear, concise and effective messaging to convey *why* they make the choices they do.
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This is the truth. Vaccines are a way of training your body to recognize a foreign pathogen and training your immune system to fight it. Without them, your body can’t respond fast enough to an infection. It’s like trying to run a marathon without ever training.
One of the ironies of anti-vax sentiment is that vaccines are among the most naturopathic of medicines, more akin to exercise, almost literally exercising the immune system, than they are to invasive treatments or synthetic drugs.
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Something many cities can learn from. Repeatability, pragmatism, in-house expertise, reducing red-tape and continual learning drive down infrastructure costs. Not every project should be a unique process or unique design.
I love streetcars. But I HATE streetcars that operate in mixed traffic. Dedicated lanes or nothing.
Streetcars (trams) in mixed traffic are the worst of both worlds. If transit must mix with traffic, bus and streetcar will both be unreliable but a bus will always beat a streetcar because it can maneuver around obstacles.
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Calgary continues to be a leader in housing starts, but still needs to do more. Our population is growing at record levels and more housing will help slow the increase to prices and rents.
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The private jets and yachts part is valid. But saying investments generate carbon emissions is a weird accounting strategy. If they didn’t invest their money, would emissions drop? Am I responsible for the emissions from my pension investments?
"Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average emit more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime."
climateandcapitalism.com/202…
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Why is living in an urban neighbourhood like Beltline so great? Because after a dentist appointment this morning, I stopped at an electronics store, grocery store, liquor store, bank and coffee shop, all within 2 blocks. All those errands took me less than an hour. #urbanlife
Roughly 45K people live within walking distance of the centre street Green Line. nose Creek is 7K. Almost 7x more people served. That’s why Nose Creek was rejected. And that difference grows the larger the wall shed, or with feeder buses.
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So many of these threads can simply be explained by survivorship bias. Yes, they built beautiful things in the past: and those things have largely been preserved. They also built ugly and boring things, and those things have mostly been demolished or replaced.
Why did past societies build so much "useless" beauty everywhere — and why did we stop?
It might be a measure of a culture's health... (thread) 🧵
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I go into this in Bad Data. Container ships are ridiculously efficient. Driving to the grocery store emits more carbon that shipping your groceries halfway around the world in these ships.
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Important to note- property values consist of two elements: land and buildings. You can make buildings cheaper, while making land more valuable by increasing allowable density. It really is a win-win.
Trudeau is not self contradictory here. Just legalize small lot apartments.
*Land* maintains value and can be sold to fund retirement, while urban apartment *homes* (normal in big cities) become cheaper and broadly affordable.
We could have it all. 🤷🏻♀️
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Great thread on development charges, the notion of “growth paying for growth” and downstream effects of suburban development.
Does "growth pays for growth" mean that new suburban developments pay for all the roads they require?
No. Whether it's a detached home in Barrhaven or an apartment in Centretown with no parking, both will end up paying for these new suburban roads.🧵
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