Talk about a train to nowhere: VIA Rail plans to spend $25-million worth of stimulus money to purchase 12 luxury cars, complete with double beds, leather couches, showers and heated floors. But who exactly is this money stimulating?

The folks at Rocky Mountaineer Rail — which used to be operated by VIA and was privatized in 1990 — are justifiably upset because they already operate luxury rail tours. VIA plans to charge nearly half the cost of its private-sector competitor and, while competition is usually a good thing, its public subsidy gives the Crown corporation an unfair advantage.

Government usually justifies its use of Crown corporations to correct a perceived market failure; but the private sector is already offering the same service and anyone who can afford $5,000 for a cross-Canada train ride doesn't need to be the beneficiary of government handouts.

Darn remote ran out of batteries. Wish I had a nanny state to solve this problem for me.For years, television viewers have had to contend with the knowledge that when their program goes to break, the volume will increase and scantily-clad women begin touting the merits of cheap beer, while Billy Mays tries to sell — well, what didn’t Billy Mays try to sell?

There was a time when this was a real problem. Before the invention of the remote control, one had to actually put aside their TV dinner and walk across the room to turn down the volume. Assuming they didn’t want noisy commercials waking the baby that is. In the age of iPads and HDTVs, however, solving this problem is as easy as pressing the Mute button on the remote or setting the TiVo to filter out this commercials.

But even this is too much for some couch potatoes who would much rather see the government do something about the mild annoyance. Canadians whine and the valiant CRTC listens. On Tuesday, the telecommunications regulator issued a decree mandating that broadcasters normalize the volume on television commercials and gave them one year to comply.

She's way more distracting than a cellphone.

Alberta’s new distracted driving law comes into effect Thursday. The new rules prohibit the use of handheld phones behind the wheel, along with a host of other distractions, including eating, reading and using a GPS or MP3 player.

Albertans will finally be able hit the open road, secure in the knowledge they have been saved from the scourge of distracted hockey moms talking on their phones while driving their minivans like Kamikaze pilots down Highway 2.

Handheld cellphone bans have swept across North America like wildfire in recent years. The spark was struck when people began hearing anecdotes about distracted drivers involved in horrific collisions. “There ought to be a law,” people would say. The media quickly picked up on the conversation, and then the politicians chimed in, “yes, there really ought to be a law.” The result is public policy that’s based on fear, rather than science.

Alberta used to be a province that would buck such trends; a province that remained relatively free, as those living in the rest of Canada slowly lost their liberties to the steady march of the nanny state. In 1996-97, the Alberta legislature sat for a total of 38 days, compared to 134 in Ontario. Then-premier Ralph Klein recognized that not enacting laws — which limit freedoms and often produce unintended consequences — is often better than getting caught up in the flurry of populist demands for change.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may be doing a decent job of stopping the gravy train at city hall, but he’s done little to halt the ever-expanding nanny state. According to the CBC:

The opening of Calgary's $25 million Peace Bridge has been delayed until the fall.

Driving from the airport into Jerusalem, it's hard not to be taken aback by the beauty and significance of the biblical city. It's also hard not to notice the giant light rail bridge that sticks out from the historic sandstone buildings like a pig at a Bar Mitzvah.

The Jerusalem Chords Bridge, which cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $60 million, was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who is known for building pricey bridges that double as public art. In fact, Calgary is currently building one of its own.

The structure, which spans the Bow River and resembles an oversized Chinese finger trap, will cost Calgary taxpayers $24.5 million. That is, as long as the city doesn't have to foot the bill for cost overruns that have been incurred thanks to substandard welding that was found inside the bridge's tubular structure.

Milk is not the only beverage that does a body good (SuicideGirls/flickr)

A few years a ago, I visited China and found that, in many places, it was actually cheaper to drink beer than bottled water. The same is true in the UK. In Canada, however, one might think the sky was falling at the mere mention of the possibility that beer could become less expensive than milk.

The Quebec Brewers Association — which represents Molson and Labatt, Canada’s largest beer producers that control around 90% of the market — is lobbying the provincial government to change the way it calculates the floor price of beer, which would, in effect, raise the minimum price in Quebec.

The obvious benefit of raising the minimum is that it gives producers an excuse to charge more for their product, thereby increasing their profit margins. There are, however, many other advantages for the big producers that come from having a government-mandated floor price.

First, it prevents Molson and Labatt from getting involved in a price war. In most cases, if two players in an oligopolistic marketplace colluded on price, it would be illegal. But if the government does it for them, the companies are free and clear.

The minimum price also acts as a barrier to entry into the marketplace. Since the two companies already have the brand recognition and sell their product at the lowest price possible under the law, it is difficult for a new company to enter the market and compete based on the price point. The regulation helps these companies maintain their market share against would-be competitors.

The Quebec government has backed off a plan that would have reduced the legal blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) to .05 and brought its regulations in line with the other provinces.

While the Criminal Code sets the legal limit at .08, most provinces have created a legal grey area where drivers with a blood-alcohol level above .05 can be fined or lose their license. In Ontario, for example, drivers with a BAC between .05 and .08 face a three-day roadside suspension the first time they’re caught, which increases to one month for people who break the rules a third time.

The law effectively makes it illegal to have a glass of wine or two with dinner before driving home. Yet, these are not the people who are endangering lives. According to Transport Canada, over 80 per cent of alcohol-related fatal injury crashes involve a driver with a BAC above .08. In comparison, only five per cent of fatal injury crashes involve drivers between .05 and .08. In fact, the odds of a driver with a BAC of .015 and someone driving at .08 getting into a fatal crash are statistically the same.