Don't listen to what public health officials and doctors have been warning for years. The Fraser Institute knows better.
The venerable think tank has produced a study that finds there is no obesity epidemic in Canada (and even if there is, government shouldn't attempt to do anything about it). This, after we only just stopped laughing at their assertion that raising a child only costs $3,000 per year, if you don't factor in things like housing costs or child care.
Their studies typically start with a conclusion and then cherry pick stats to support it, which is exactly what medical professionals are saying about this latest one.
And, like all Fraser Institute studies, this one is an inroad for them to espouse policy. In this case, they target tax hikes on sugary and fatty foods, food bans, vending machine bans, and (gasp!) menu and food labelling initiatives. Because what's really hurting the economy right now is a lack of sugar in high school kids' diets and people having the right to know what's in the food they buy.
The free market being the deity in their monotheistic religion, they often equate something being profitable with that same thing being good or right.
If the Fraser Institute had been around 50 years ago, we suspect they would have been backing tobacco companies.
The Fraser Institute, in its miserly ways, is guilty of being penny-wise and pound foolish.
Government intervention to encourage healthy living means less strain on the health-care system - the granddaddy of all taxpayer-funded spending. Other than the cockpit of a fighter jet, there isn't a place more expensive for taxpayers than a hospital bed.
