Canada needs a Green New Deal
Illustration by Left Voice Recently, two events occurred that at first glance seemed unconnected or even at odds: Canada bought a pipeline and General Motors (GM) closed a factory. Late…
Michal Rozworski
Trudeau’s “progressive” trade agenda is anything but
Photo by FORTUNE Global Forum Mass protests against free-trade agreements have died off since the days of the annual confrontations in the aughts, but this is at least in part…
Is this the best they can do? The weak case against $14 in Ontario
Today the libertarian Montreal Economic Institute think tank released a short report claiming that Ontario’s $14 minimum wage is costing thousands of young workers their jobs and raising prices for…
Lessons from the 70th birthday of the National Health Service
Photo from Public Domain This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). When it was established in 1948, the NHS was the world’s first…
Labour’s fate and revival in the US and Canada
This week, two labour historians talk about their new books on Canadian and US workers’ movements in the 20th century, books which offer important and practical lessons for unions today.…
How Doug Ford won and how to challenge him
Last Thursday was a dark day in Ontario as the Conservative Party led by businessman-bully-bullshitter Doug Ford won a majority in the provincial election. Two guests assess the factors behind…
The Ontario Election isn’t about Deficits, and that’s a good thing
Photo from Public Domain How big is your deficit? This Ontario election, no one seems to care – and that’s a decisive positive to emerge from a campaign that’s too…
The Ontario election isn’t about deficits—and that’s a good thing
How big is your deficit? This Ontario election, no one seems to care—and that’s a decisive positive to emerge from a campaign that’s too often been submerged in the politics…
West Virginia teachers strike to win
This episode is dedicated to the recent, inspiring and victorious teachers’ strike in West Virginia. West Virginia teachers went out on strike in late February over low pay and continued…
Jobs data doesn’t say much about the minimum wage (yet) but lots about growing inequality
We’ve had two months of jobs data in Canada since Ontario increased it’s minimum wage from $11.60 to $14 on January 1, 2017. When January’s Labour Force Survey numbers came…
The problems with progressive free trade and a divided labour movement
…And we’re back to regularly-scheduled programming. Apologies for the podcasting hiatus to (now really faithful) listeners; I hope to be back to regular episodes once again. I’m restarting the show…
Media get it wrong on Bank of Canada minimum wage study
Over a million workers in Ontario just got a big raise thanks to tireless, bottom-up orgainizing, but if you look to the media it’s a bad news story. The same,…
Site C, Reconciliation and a Green New Deal
Reconciliation is not just about rhetoric, it is material. It is about how economic costs and benefits are shared. If we are to be serious about it, we have to…
Minimum wage whack-a-mole
Minimum-wage whack-a-mole is the best way to describe what I’ve been up to the past couple months. It seems like every week or so in August and September, the business…
The headline you didn’t see: $15 per hour will have a big net benefit
You wouldn’t know it from today’s headlines about impending job losses, but an analysis of the impact of Ontario’s move to a $15 minimum wage from the province’s Financial Accountability…
For the 150th, let’s also re-make our economic myths
Every society needs its myths. But as much as myths and stories can empower, they can also be damaging. Here are three economic myths about Canada that could use re-writing.…
Summer writing round-up
I know it’s been a bit quiet on the blog this summer, but that’s in part because I’ve been doing a bunch of writing elsewhere. Here is a quick summary…
The Chamber’s economic impact analysis of Bill 148 still doesn’t make sense
On Monday, the Keep Ontario Working coalition spearheaded by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce released an analysis of the impacts of Bill 148 in Ontario, which will introduce a $15…
Confused about universality? So are NDP leadership candidates
There some pretty confused stuff on universality and means-testing during last night’s NDP leadership debate. Here are some thoughts that might help clear things up a bit. First, Singh’s attack…