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Opportunity knocks
Canadian PoliticsWe should seize this unexpected opportunity to withdraw from NAFTA and any other agreement that puts corporate interests before the public interest. Canada is a trading nation and always will be and the U.S. economy will always be a major factor in Canadian economic life — but our economic stability depends on an inward turn toward an east-west rather than a north-south axis, wherever possible replacing global value chains with domestic ones and choosing democratic national planning over capitalist global planning.
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Maxime Bernier’s bold move
Canadian PoliticsUltimately, we have no real sense of how Bernier’s plan will unfold. History tells us that the vast majority of political parties in Canada fail due to our first-past-the-post system. Indeed, only three federal parties have official party status right now; two with roots back to Confederation and one with roots in the Great Depression. But don’t count Mad Max out. If politics has taught us anything over the past few years, it’s that the impossible is a lot more likely than we’ve previously thought.
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Doug Ford’s New Poor Laws Replace Basic Income
Canadian PoliticsThe decision of the new Tory Government in Ontario to terminate the basic income pilot project confirms that the right is as divided as the left on this issue of social policy. The Doug Ford Tories form part of an international right wing opposition to BI that does not share the view of the Silicon Valley billionaire set, the World Bank and a range of others within the neoliberal order that this form of income support could serve the needs of capitalist exploitation.
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Referendum on Portage and Main is a huge opportunity for Winnipeg urbanists
Canadian PoliticsWhen you account for these economic and political factors, one comes to a fulsome picture: a true people’s urbanism (not one for the privileged few) must bring together people from across the city to prioritize public transit, accessibility, and a robust local democracy promoting engagement on civic issues. The space is there to create this kind of culture. The referendum on Portage and Main this fall is the perfect chance to create it.
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Trump Threatens Canada: “Defence” Community Remains Silent
Canadian PoliticsInstead of responding to Trump’s belligerence by ramping up military preparedness — which the US president demanded in a letter to the Prime Minister last week — we should be debating the point of a Canadian “defence” sector unwilling to even discuss defending our country from its primary military threat. A critical question to ask: Why do we spend over $20 billion a year on a Department of National Defence?
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Putting Public Ownership Back on the Table
Canadian BusinessIf we are to build a just society, we require a just economy. And while that must include better social programs financed through redistributive taxation, the democratic socialist project is not encompassed by social programs alone; it must concern itself with the democratization of the economy. And while this shouldn’t be done solely through state ownership—worker, community, and consumer cooperatives all being viable mechanisms here—public control will nonetheless be a central plank.
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Settler-colonialism targets youth
Canadian PoliticsAs the world contemplates with horror the United States’ recent policy of separating immigrant and refugee children from their parents and detaining them for attempting to cross the border, it is important to see these disturbing events in a global context and to recognize them for what they are. Although such practices also take place in Canada, the reality is that anti-immigrant sentiment is pure hypocrisy in settler-colonial states like the United States and Canada.
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Ontario Election 2018: Right-Wing Populism Prevails Over Moderate Social Democracy
Canadian PoliticsAs the Ford government will certainly prove disastrous for cities, municipal elections across the province this fall also represent opportunities to elect left and progressive candidates and begin to form a network of ‘rebel cities’ in opposition to the Ford regime. Perhaps, if stronger community-based infrastructure can take hold and revitalized social coalitions form, the labour movement in Ontario might yet again return to leading social struggles and the political space for a radical opening suddenly appear.
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A call for the NDP to withdraw from the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group
Canadian PoliticsIn particular, we are dismayed that NDP justice critic Murray Rankin and NDP defence critic Randall Garrison serve as executive members of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group. NDP MPs Peter Julian and Gord Johns are also members of that organization. The Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group promotes “greater friendship” between Canadian MPs and members of the Israeli Knesset and has organized events with other pro-Israel lobby organizations.
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How to handle U.S. threats to Canadian trade
Canadian PoliticsOfficial Ottawa needs to recognize that Canada is better off working with other countries to build a reasonable multilateral trading world rather than depending on the goodwill of a Donald Trump to re-negotiate NAFTA, or betting that he will not be re-elected. It is past time for Canada to return to active support for improved multilateral trade arrangements instead of the Harper/Trudeau policy of pursuing bilateral or regional agreements.
