A Shoppers Drug Mart store on Dupont Street in Toronto. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. After a week of sustained bad press, insurance provider Manulife has reversed its decision to enter into an exclusive preferred partner network, or PPN, agreement with Loblaw-owned pharmacies. Manulife has stated that, in response to public
Continue readingAuthor: Taylor C. Noakes
Canadian Dimension: The NDP is a spent force in Canadian politics
Former Alberta Premier Rachel Notley (far right) at a campaign rally in May 2023. Photo from Twitter. Canadian progressives need to begin the process of organizing a new political movement, one that will either reorient the NDP to re-establish it as Canada’s principle progressive social democratic party, or create a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why Ukraine’s interest in Chinese-brokered peace worries the White House
Photo courtesy General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Facebook China’s recent pledge to send a peace delegation to Ukraine in the hope of resolving the country’s ongoing war with Russia is a hopeful sign the bloody conflict may soon come to an end. But the US’s general hostility to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s ‘China syndrome’
The flag of the People’s Republic of China files at the Embassy of China in Ottawa. Photo from Flickr. As the war in Ukraine stalls, or moves towards the possibility of a Chinese-brokered peace agreement that would conclusively prove the waning influence of US hegemony, the empire and its provinces
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ottawa should nationalize the Medicago vaccine plant
The Québec provincial government is seeking a buyer for Medicago Inc., the producer of the plant-based Covifenz vaccine, which was approved by Health Canada in early 2022 for adults aged 18 to 64. Photo from Adobe Stock. Why worry about the potential negative effects of health care privatization in Canada—if
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Tanks not troops
A Leopard 2A4 tank from Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) travels on the Black Route of the 3rd Canadian Division Support Base Garrison Wainwright Training Centre in preparation for Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21, on April 30, 2021. Photo by Sailor First Class Camden Scott/Canadian Armed Forces/Flickr. After nearly a year
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s airline industry doesn’t need more competition. It needs a public alternative
Air Canada Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft parked at the Marana Pinal Airpark, Tucson, Arizona. Photo from Flickr. Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s recent statement that increasing competition in Canada’s airline industry would improve services has raised eyebrows amongst Canadian progressives, not least because New Democrat supporters have historically supported public,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Towards a Federal Healthcare System
The time has come to nationalize healthcare in Canada. The experience of the pandemic so far has provided ample evidence that the provinces are wholly incapable of handling major public health emergencies, and the cumulative effect of decades of provincial budget cuts, downsizing, mismanagement, and a corporate ‘do more with
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why we need to nationalize health care in Canada
The time has come to nationalize health care in Canada. The experience of the pandemic has provided ample evidence that the provinces are wholly incapable of handling major public health emergencies. Indeed, the cumulative effect of decades of provincial budget cuts, downsizing, mismanagement, and a corporate ‘do more with less’
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism: a viable way forward for anti-racist action
The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism accomplishes the task of clearly identifying antisemitism in such a fashion that it is unlikely to upset anyone, writes Taylor Noakes. Photo by Ted Eytan. Shimon Koffler Fogel, President of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), recently argued in the pages of the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: What we forget when we remember
Thousands of Canadian flags honouring fallen soldiers are planted on the front lawn of the Manulife head office in downtown Toronto. Photo from Flickr. Today across the nation Canadians of all walks of life, beliefs, identities, and political orientations, will gather in communities large and small, by cenotaphs of equal
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Loyalty oath shows inconsistencies in Canadian democracy
Should Canadians still pledge their allegiance to the monarch? Photo from iStock. It is not often that I find myself agreeing with Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose ethno-nationalist, anti-immigrant policies I despise, but these are strange times we are living in. Particularly odd is the fact that in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Reprogramming the genocide deniers
A march from Queen’s Park to Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto to demand action on the 215 children found in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Residential School, June 2021. Photo by Michael Swan/Flickr At the end of the Second World War, the Allies instigated a broad program of denazification
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Shifting the paradigm on national defence
Soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment support provincial government and municipal authorities in relief efforts during Operation LENTUS, Maugerville, New Brunswick, April 22, 2019. Photo by Sergeant Lance Wade/Flickr. It is an important point worth reiterating: more Canadians die every year from climate change related disasters and from communicable diseases
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ditch the monarchy
Elizabeth II and Prince Charles formally open parliament in 2015. Photo courtesy UK Parliament/Flickr. For all the great things Elizabeth Windsor was supposed to have done in her life, and for all the good she was supposed to have done as a symbol of strength and unity for her people—particularly
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: On yelling at Chrystia Freeland
This still image from a video posted to social media shows Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland being verbally accosted as she visits Grande Prairie, Alberta, August 26, 2022. Irrespective of your political inclinations, you probably wouldn’t like to live in a country where it is not perfectly acceptable to shout,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Debunking Black Ribbon Day
“Wonder how long the honeymoon will last?” (1939). Illustration by Clifford Berryman/Washington Star. August 23 is Black Ribbon Day, recognized by the Government of Canada as an official day of remembrance. It is intended to commemorate the victims of both communism and Nazism in Europe, and as such falls on
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Retaliation isn’t justice
Ayman al-Zawahiri was the second emir of Al Qaeda from June 16, 2011 until he was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan in July 2022. Photo by B.K. Bangash. If you blinked you might have missed it. On August 1 Justin Trudeau tacitly endorsed the CIA’s extrajudicial assassination
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why we need to (re)nationalize Air Canada
Air Canada Airbus A320-211 at the Ottawa International Airport. Photo by Heads Up Aviation/Flickr. It would be tempting to base an argument in favour of nationalizing Air Canada solely off its poor performance over the course of the last few weeks, but in truth the problems experienced by air travellers
Continue reading