When Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mused in the midst of debate over her government’s new funding turf war with Ottawa that “we could also establish our own research programs” to ensure ideological balance in academic research, many Albertans suspected they understood precisely what she had in mind. They thought the United Conservative Party (UCP)’s Bill 18 is about more than just keeping the Trudeau Government from getting credit for helping Alberta municipalities, starved for cash by her government’s policies, and Alberta students and researchers who qualify for federal grants. The so-call ..read more

There is no doubt that Pierre Poilievre caught the national mood of frustration over rising prices and economic uncertainty. His “Housing Hell” video is a skillfully crafted message, putting the blame for housing costs at the feet of Justin Trudeau and municipal “gatekeepers”. By the end of the pitch, viewers hear Pierre’s promise to get something done if he was in charge. But here’s the thing. During the entire fifteen minutes, there is no mention of many of the actual culprits in skyrocketing costs. The words speculator, landlord or developer never appear. Nor do the words rent gouging or r ..read more

This year, as Jewish Canadians celebrate the holiday of Passover, conversations about Israel/Palestine will be difficult to avoid. As Jews, we are calling on our families, friends, and communities to embrace uncomfortable conversations and find unity in Passover’s call for collective liberation. When we tell the story of Passover from the Book of Exodus — about the liberation of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt — we are telling a universal story about the fight for human dignity and freedom from oppression. The story recounts how God forced Pharaoh to let our people go by inflicti ..read more

What is the reason hydro rates went so high? Why did provincial governments opt to subsidize the problem instead of dealing with the root cause? This is the budget item no one not even the NDP wants to talk about.  In the 2022 Financial Accountability Office (FAO) reported that over the next 20 years Premier Doug Ford plans to spend $118 billion subsidizing hydro rates and would not be able to keep his election promise to lower hydro rates by 12 per cent. The 2023 FAO report shows that by the next provincial election in 2026 Ford will have spent $54 billion artificially lowering artifici ..read more

The season’s third episode takes us back to George Brown College’s 32nd annual Labour Fair in Toronto, ‘Corporate Power vs. Labour Power: It’s Our Work!!’ Professor Benjamin McCarthy facilitates a discussion featuring Lauren Ravon, executive director of Oxfam Canada and Jared Ong, organizer and case worker with the Workers’ Action Centre. Together, they discuss how this new age of corporate-driven inequality impacts workers on the ground and the hope that lies within working peoples’ solidarity. Reflecting on how government should be investing in work, Ravon says: “ …When we think of what th ..read more

Now that the chickens are coming home to roost for some of the would-be Canadian colour revolutionaries of 2022, a certain amount if schadenfreude in social media was inevitable given the rhetoric of the Coutts blockaders and Ottawa occupiers.  A lot of it can be summarized in the common Internet abbreviation, FAFO, which means, “fool around and find out,” or words to that effect.  But I can’t help but feel some empathy, although not sympathy, for some of these characters, who were enabled and emboldened by cynical right-wing politicians in Alberta and now can’t get them to pick up ..read more

On Tuesday April 16, the 2024 federal budget was released – and we broke it down the very next day on our monthly political panel, Off the Hill. Our panel featured economist at the Centre for Future Work Jim Stanford, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives David Macdonald, and writer and policy researcher Chuka Ejeckam. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. About our guests Jim Stanford is an economist and the director of the Centre for Future Work, a labour economics research institute with operations in Canada and Australia. David Macdonald is the senior econo ..read more

Albertans are being asked to believe the provincial government doesn’t keep copies of every piece of correspondence it receives, including some it formally acts upon.  To say this strains credulity understates the matter considerably. Yet this is precisely what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claimed on her Your Province, Your Premier freebie Corus Radio program Saturday – an assertion that warrants detailed clarification by the government.  When she made this claim – which is either incorrect or evidence of serious administrative malpractice – Smith was blowing off a question by her ..read more

Last week on April 15, Alberta’s Finance Minister Nate Horner stated that the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE)’s position on wages is extreme. “Recently, the union representing government employees, the AUPE, told the government that they are demanding a 26 per cent wage increase over the next three years. The AUPE claims that government employee wages have fallen behind,” said Minister Horner. “Albertans and, indeed all Canadians, have not seen a wage increase of this size. The Conference Board of Canada found most working Albertans received a salary increase between 2 and 3 per ..read more

“Earth Day: an SOS for survival.” That’s how NBC opened their coverage of the first ever Earth Day 54 years ago. The news reporter went on to describe the activities from that day: impromptu concerts, tens of thousands of people marching in the streets, activists crawling into symbolic prop coffins to protest air pollution, and violent overreactions toward peaceful crowds from baton-wielding police—all sadly familiar and non-surprising in our modern day context. It was something else the news reporter said that got my attention. “Ecology is a non-controversial idea. No one is against survival ..read more