Right across Canada and around the world, jurisdictions are moving away from coal-fired electricity generation in favour of cleaner options, and this critical debate has finally come to the mainstream in Alberta.

The Alberta NDP has reignited this much-needed discussion with its platform commitment in the current election to “phase out coal-fired electricity generation to reduce smog and greenhouse gas emissions and expand cleaner, greener sources, including wind and solar”.

Budget 2015 is, surprise, primarily a political document that extolls the government’s record and highlights tax cuts, but does almost nothing to deal with rising inequality or to shape the trajectory of the struggling economy.

As expected, annual contributions to Tax Free Savings Accounts are to be almost doubled to $10,000 per year, which will cost over $300 million in lost annual revenues within five years. The increase will eventually all but eliminate taxation of investment income, to the primary benefit of the very affluent earning more than $250,000 per year who collect almost half of all capital gains and dividends subject to tax.

John Ibbitson / Globe and Mail

Was it wrong for the Harper government to balance the budget this year? That depends on whether we have become as conservative as the Prime Minister thinks we are.

OTTAWA—The 2015-16 federal budget contains costly measures that will exacerbate economic inequality and see billions flow to Canada’s wealthiest families while leaving the majority of Canadians with no benefit at all, says the Broadbent Institute.