Governments around the world are heading down a path to economic suicide. So said Nobel Prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, to hundreds of well-heeled financiers and decision-makers who paid a bundle to hear him in Toronto. With a voice as gruff as gravel, and an energy bristling with urgency, he […]
Continue readingTag: Conservative government
Canadian Progressive World: Great Start to Occupy Ottawa Protest
Occupy Ottawa started as a solidarity movement in support the Occupy Wall Street movement. On Sunday, the movement defined itself as truly Canadian. More than 750 Occupy Ottawa protesters marched through Ottawa’s downtown core. The protesters’ sang…
Continue readingCalgaryLiberal: So.. I’m Not A Liberal Now?
So.. I’m not a Liberal now? Every single time someone takes a potshot at Raj Sherman for his political past it’s an affront to me. He was a federal Liberal first in his political career… as was I. When I was in high school I was an …
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Funding for Federal Granting Councils
The Canadian Association of University Teachers represents 66,000 university and college teachers, academic librarians, researchers and staff at more than 120 universities and colleges in Canada. Their 2012 brief to the Federal Finance Committee contains some useful numbers. I was particularly interested to see their data showing decreased funding to Canada’s federal granting councils. Using constant dollars, the brief spells out that, over […]
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Jack Layton: A Funeral Befitting A Great Canadian
It’s one of those solemn Canadian moments: A casket draped in the flag of Canada. A body lying in state on Parliament Hill. Canadian flag on the Peace Tower and public buildings across the country flying half-mast. Canadians, in their thousan…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Macro-Economics of Financing Employment Insurance
The federal government has launched consultations on EI premium setting. This provides the opportunity to shift from a very ad hoc system to one that is more fair to workers, and more economically rational. The current worker premium is $1.78 per $100 of insured earnings and the employer premium is $2.49 per $100, adding to […]
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Canada’s Unenviable Royal RaceTo The Past
Where are Canadian progressives when you need them? Where were Canada’s anti-mornachists, pacifists and nationalists when Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government were planning to return Canada to its Royal yesterday? Defence…
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Symbolic: Canada’s “New” Sanctions Against North Korea
Canada’s Conservative government will do anything to shore up it’s new militaristic approach to complex global crises. And that includes, imposing symbolic sanctions on a rogue regime. And imposing such sanctions on the same regime within e…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada’s Breadbasket and the Food Casino
There’s been no shortage of new content on our blog this week. But I write to highlight a couple of interesting reads from other blogs. On The Globe and Mail blog, Andrew Hepburn (formerly of Sprott Asset Management) has a very good op-ed about financial speculation in food commodities. On the CCPA’s Behind the Numbers […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Public Sector Austerity: Why is Canada Leading the Way?
The major economic problem faced by Canadians is a very slow recovery and weak job market, not government deficits or rising debt. But public spending cuts at the federal and provincial level will make the real problem even worse. And, government spending cuts in Canada seem set to be even greater than in other advanced […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Family Values and Budget Cuts
Once again, in the middle of summer, the anti-government government has unleashed more anti-policy policy via a compliant Statistics Canada. Who needs data when you’ve got family values? The Harper team knows what you need. (Hint: tax cuts. Oops! Not for you sister, if you’re a single mom.) The Globe and Mail’s Tavia Grant has […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Use University Research to Increase Manufacturing Jobs
Manufacturing jobs have been declinining as a percentage of total jobs in most OECD countries for several decades, with Ontario being especially hard-hit as a jurisdiction. At the end of the Second World War, manufacturing jobs accounted for 26% of all Canadian jobs; by 2007, this figure had dropped to just 12%. And as I’ve […]
Continue readingCalgaryLiberal: Something to Watch: Federal Liberals in Calgary
With the new seats coming federally in the House of Commons to the economic seat of Canada–Alberta–the province will finally get a more reasonable level of representation. No longer will each of our votes matter less than Ontario or Quebec …
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Five Economic Tests for Harper’s Majority Government
This article was first published at the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. As Parliament resumes after Canada’s historic 41st election, all eyes are on Prime Minister Stephen Harper and how he delivers on his campaign promises of growth and stability. With no encumbrances to its decision-making powers, the Harper majority government will be responsible — […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: How Much Will Harper Cut?
Some progressives worry that the new Conservative majority will dismantle the Canadian state. Hard-nosed economic conservatives like Andrew Coyne and Terry Corcoran worry that the Conservatives will not actually cut government spending. I have suggested that the Harper Conservatives will cut, but not as much as the Chretien Liberals. This debate would benefit from some […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: A progressive paradox for Québec and Canada
The mood in the progressive milieu here in Québec seems rather grim this morning. In Québec history we call the twenty year period when anti-union, right wing populist Duplessis ruled, the “Era of the Great Darkness”, and many by email or on social media have spontaneously referred to the upcoming period in an analogous way. […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Economic Impact of Harper Majority
This 6 minute debate between Michael Hlinka, CBC business correspondent, and myself examines the economic impact of a Harper majority. It took place early today on Metro Morning, the local morning CBC program in Toronto. It touches on the nature of growth, the distribution of the benefits of growth, the erosion of the foundation of […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Harper’s Reckless Economics
Throughout the election campaign Stephen Harper claimed the political high ground on the management of the economy. The surprise is that the opposition has pretty much let him get away with this. During the English Language debate the first question focused on $6 billion tax cuts to corporations. Harper said there were no tax cuts […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Fiscal Record of Canadian Political Parties
With all the recent news stories — as well as alarm raised by other leaders — about the fiscal and economic impact and record of NDP governments, I decided to take a look at and review the fiscal record of all federal and provincial governments in Canada for the past three decades. These results may […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: False Consciousness, Part I: On Elections and the Middle Class
The following appeared in the National Post today. We’re in the last week of a federal election campaign, and every party wants you to believe they’re there for the hardworking families of a middle class under enormous pressure. That’s you, right? The idea of the middle class resonates, because it is a notion we all […]
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