Full Circle

Dig deep into the archives of this blog and you might happen upon my first ever post, "Ontario gets the shaft?". My inaugural entry, which dates back to May of last year, decried the Liberal government's unnecessary and counter-productive interventions into the economy with specific reference to subsidies given to Bombardier for the development of its C-Series jets. Allow me to quote myself.

Canada is purportedly a competitive market economy, and yet the Liberals continue to arm-wrestle with the invisible hand... If this latest CSeries Jet project was actually a wise investment, it could have easily been financed privately. Meanwhile, businesses around the country that are actually profitable are saddled with high taxes, restricting their growth prospects.

Guess what? It turns out it really wasn't such a wise investment. From CBC via Andrew Coyne:

MONTREAL (CP) - Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.SV.B) has put its proposed transcontinental CSeries jet project on the shelf, blaming poor market conditions.

The company said Tuesday it has not scrapped the program but has put off indefinitely its launch after failing to get enough orders to proceed.

As Coyne so eloquently puts it.

Coyne's Fork on this is remorseless and absolute: If the project is uneconomic, it shouldn't get a subsidy. If it's economic, it doesn't need one.

Amen.