Outside the Macdonald Commission: Reply to Richard Simeon

Abstract

InInside the Macdonald (SPE 22), Richard Simeon attempts to answer a question by Daniel Drache: Why did the Macdonald Commission adopt the pro-market views of corporate Canada? Simeon's response is that there was no credible alternative before the commissioners (emphasis in the original). He concludes: Therefore, the choice ultimately was the market model or nothing. We have to disagree. More to the point, we think we can show that his answer reveals the poverty of mainstream political science and economics in Canada today.