OECD Findings on Employment Protection and Jobs Performance
Further to my earlier post on the OECD’s new data on employment performance across its 34 member countries (and Canada’s relatively poor ranking in that regard), another part of the…
Jim Stanford
Canada Sinking Fast on Global List of Job Creators
The federal government never tires of boasting that Canada’s labour market has performed better than most other countries through the financial crisis and subsequent recession, and that the number of…
Remembering Lukin Robinson
I attended a lovely memorial service this week for Hugh Lukin Robinson, long-time labour economist and progressive activist in Ontario who passed away a few months ago at the ripe…
Industrial Policy, Manufacturing Employment, and the Loonie
The Institute for Research on Public Policy has published a very interesting overview study on the resuscitation of “industrial policy” in economic policy circles. It points out that industrial policy…
C-377: A Chance for the Senate to Prove Its Worth
There’s a hilarious piece in today’s National Post by Dean Beeby, who cleverly used an access to information request to ferret out a copy of the training manual they use…
Will CETA Help Tories… Or Hurt Them??
With Prime Minister Harper making the diplomatic rounds in Europe, media interest has heightened this week regarding the potential free trade agreement which his government is trying to negotiate with…
Investment Canada Act’s Tradition of Ad-Hockery Continues
I was invited to appear before the House of Commons Industry Committee this week on the subject of Bill C-60, this year’s omnibus budget bill. 18 paragraphs of that long…
Guest Blog from Chris Watson: “If You Can’t Buy, I Can’t Sell”
The following guest post was written by Chris Watson, legislative liaison for CUPE Ontario based in Toronto: In stark contrast to the austerity budget strategy of Don Drummond, Dalton McGuinty…
Dutch Disease is Dead … Long Live Dutch Disease!!!
In the hyper-polarized context of Canadian energy policy debates, even suggesting that there might be a downside to the untrammeled energy boom centred in northern Alberta is enough to get…
Canadians Giving Up on the World of Work
The glaring contrast between employment numbers, and the unemployment rate, was highlighted by today’s labour force numbers from Statistics Canada (capably dissected elsewhere on this blog by Angella MacEwan). Paid…
Guest Blog: David Fairey on the History of the Trade Union Research Bureau
A special event was held at the Vancouver & District Labour Council last week to commemorate the history and contributions of the Trade Union Research Bureau.
ONA Study on Macroeconomic Side-Effects of Austerity
The Ontario Nurses Association has been publishing some awesome economic analysis over the last couple of years, highlighting the talents of their new economist & PEF member Salimah Valiani. Apart…
Transparency for Unions and other “Little People”
I had a good old-fashioned knock-em-down drag-em-out debate with Ian Lee from Carleton University on CBC’s Power & Politics yesterday re C377. http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Politics/ID/2318279928/ There were a number of “zingers” from…
Nexen & Progress Takeovers Approved: What Next?
The federal government’s announcement on Friday that it is approving two more big oilsands takeovers (by China’s CNOOC and Malaysia’s Petronas, both state-owned suitors) was political tap-dancing at its best.…
Recognizing Errol Black (Obituary by Jim Silver)
Errol Black was a wonderful progressive economist and activist in Manitoba who contributed enormously over the years to our collective knowledge on labour economics, economic development, unions, and more, and…
$12 bil CETA GDP Claim from SimCity, not Real World
This week’s edition of Embassy newspaper contained a very interesting briefing insert on the Canada-EU CETA talks. Below is a commentary from me critiquing the ubiquitous but unbelievable claim that…
Why Natural Disasters are Good for Capitalism
It’s been amusing today to listen to the pundits discuss the economic implications of Hurricane Sandy. Of course, we all know it closed the financial markets in NYC for two…
CAW Major Auto Bargaining 2012: Lessons Learned
I am now finally emerging from the mental fog induced by the 24-7 triennial marathon otherwise known as “CAW major auto bargaining.” To close the circle, here are my thoughts…
FTA’s Assumed Benefits Can’t Be Found
Last month’s over-the-top “celebrations”of the 25th anniversary of Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan’s signing of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement seemed strained, to my mind. The self-congratulation and back-patting struck…
Guest Blog: Selective Amnesia at Bank of Canada
The following is a guest blog from Marc Lavoie and Mario Seccareccia at the University of Ottawa: In a speech delivered on October 4th to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce…