Matthew Lau

Matthew Lau is a Canadian writer, primarily on economic principles and fiscal policy.

Bio last updated June 17th, 2021.

Matthew Lau

Articles by Matthew Lau

  • Drafting on Milton Friedman's Heroics

    Matthew Lau explains why the late eminent economist remains his personal hero. Hint: it has to do with letting individuals decide whether to wear army boots.

    Contrary to popular belief, the cost of staffing the military, Friedman showed both in an essay in the New York Times Magazine in 1967 and in his regular columns in Newsweek magazine, was not made cheaper by conscription Shortly after his inauguration, Nixon appointed a commission of 15 people, incl...

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  • COVID is No Excuse to Close Immigration

    Matthew Lau rejects as false and logically faulty the argument that Canada should keep out newcomers until the country’s employment levels return to pre-pandemic levels.

    An immigration ban, according to the True North column, “will allow our economy to recover and prioritize new jobs to out-of-work Canadians, helping to reduce our historic high 13.7% unemployment rate This idea, then, that an immigration ban is needed to “allow our economy to recovery” and protect j...

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  • Unmasking the Benefits of Globalization

    COVID-19 has sparked calls to recover domestic production of goods from pharmaceuticals to personal protective equipment. Raising a contrary voice, Matthew Lau argues for recognizing globalization as the good that comes from economic interconnection.

    His “shockproofing” column, which made the case for onshoring the production of PPE to achieve greater security at the expense of efficiency, prescribed subsidies and ongoing government support, as well as “managed trade” (as opposed to free trade) with China to ensure that Canada would not need to ...

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  • A Task Worth Undertaking

     Matthew Lau offers a perspective on Preston Manning’s new book, Do Something, which exhorts Canadians to rescue ethical democracy.  

    As Trudeau and Trump make poor role models for those who wish to make a positive mark on politics, Manning instead commends to readers the political career of William Wilberforce as someone with admirable ethics and as the leader of “one of the greatest issue campaigns ever conducted in the history ...

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  • Need to Know

    Contributor Matthew Lau argues education should be tailored to particular needs of students rather than cultivating elementary common life. What do Convivium readers think? We’d love to have your voice join the conversation.

    The main point here is that a one-size fits all curriculum designed by provincial bureaucrats will inevitably give students much information that they will never use and that will crowd out the opportunity to gain more useful knowledge All the things that we are told students must learn more about –...

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  • Private Generosity for Public Good

    Canadians’ charitable donations as percentage of their income are at a 20-year low. Substituting government services in place of charitable gifts is not a worthy trend, writes contributor Matthew Lau.

    If people really thought the government was more effective than charitable organizations at reducing poverty and improving social welfare then instead of donating to charity, they would donate to the government by deliberately remitting to the Canada Revenue Agency more than the taxes they are requi...

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  • No Sense Gambling With Bill Gates

    Contributor Matthew Lau argues leaving the Microsoft mega billionaire’s wealth in his own hands contributes trillions more to the common good than taxing away his entire fortune.

    Upon seeing Bernie Sanders recently musing about taxing Bill Gates $100 billion to “end homelessness and provide safe drinking water to everyone in this country,” economist Russ Roberts quite rightly pointed out that $100 billion is a mere two per cent of the federal budget Even supposing Bernie San...

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  • Who Will Win Monday’s Vote?

    Given that most election platforms amount to buying votes with other people’s money, writes Matthew Lau, it’s the rich who pay, the poor who suffer, and the middle class that scoops up the winnings.

    In their quests to appeal to the middle class, the Liberal, NDP and Green platforms have to varying degrees proposed punitive taxes on the rich; all the major parties (including the Conservatives) have presented a bag of spending goodies to target middle class voters; and none have much of a plan to...

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  • Licking The Immigration Numbers Game

    Matthew Lau argues setting the ideal annual number of newcomers to Canada makes as much sense as predicting the number of ice cream cones Torontonians will eat on the weekend.

    Why then, when it comes to a much more important and complex question than ice cream cones – namely, the number of people who should be allowed to immigrate to Canada annually – should anybody have any faith in the federal government to correctly set the quantity? The answer is that they shouldn’t –...

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  • Charter Beef

    Alberta’s charter schools outperform their government-run counterparts yet local school boards have an effective veto over their existence. That makes as much sense, contributor Matthew Lau argues, as letting Harvey’s decide what’s served at the Golden Arches.

    Charter school applications can be denied by the province, as two were in 2016 by the education minister because the charter schools were deemed too similar to what was offered in traditional public schools If parents had more ability to move their children out of the underperforming traditional pub...

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