Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo by Frank Gunn/CP. The universal health care system has long been sacred for Canadians of every political stripe. However, the strain placed upon the system during the COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for right-wing governments to challenge this conventional wisdom, seeking to expand private
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics, Economic Crisis,
Canadian Dimension: Can more for-profit health care be stopped?
Photo by Hamza Butt/Flickr The new health accord between Ottawa and the provinces provides more money, but it could also easily bring an even faster rollout of for-profit provision of health care across the country. Right now, it’s pretty much up to the provinces to determine health care spending. But
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada is being outdone on fair taxes
Canadians hit hard by inflation could benefit from fairer tax policies as corporations and global food giants reap record profits from price hikes. Photo courtesy Ernst & Young Global Limited. Half a year after the Liberal-NDP agreement included plans to develop a fairer tax system, a year after all of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Guns without butter
Ottawa political circles must have heaved secret sighs of relief when Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh announced their confidence and supply agreement on March 21. In return for advancing some social spending priorities, the NDP will keep the minority government in power until
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: What could Canada do with 20 years of lost corporate tax?
The federal government has lost hundreds of billions of dollars to corporations lowering their effective tax rate by using tax credits, loopholes and tax havens. Image from Shutterstock. Canada has lost over $1.1 trillion in corporate tax over the last two decades, compared to what we would’ve raised if corporations
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s in a prolonged housing crisis. There’s one trick to getting out of it: Build more (non-market) housing
Each of the major national parties have housing plans that purport to address the housing crisis through a mix of supply and demand side measures. Photo by Scott Webb/Unsplash. The housing crisis is a top issue during the federal election—a contest that 60 percent of people say is “more important”
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Vancouver needs a real housing solution, not more for-profit exploits
Vancouver is one of the most expensive and unaffordable cities in the world. Photo by Spencer Watson/Unsplash. Corporations exist for one reason: to make profit for their shareholders. Sure, some sponsor charity runs, others offer scholarships to underprivileged kids, and a few splash their names on international “good will initiatives.”
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Liberal budget fails to meet the crises facing Canadians
According to CD columnist Christo Aivalis, the 2021 federal budget contains some decent elements, but its flaws and omissions are too significant to be ignored. Photo from Twitter. Yesterday’s 2021 federal budget tabled by Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland fails to meet the needs of Canadians during the greatest crisis
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada should follow Janet Yellen’s lead on corporate taxes
A recent study showed Canada would gain at least $11 billion by supporting the global minimum corporate tax rate. Photo by Philip Taylor/Flickr. In Janet Yellen’s confirmation speech to United States Senators in January 2021, she said the government must “act big” to deal with the pandemic’s economic fallout. Three
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The case for a wealth tax in Canada has never been clearer
According to Joe Roberts, the question is not if we should tax the fortunes of the ultra-wealthy, but rather how much is enough. Image by Morgan Housel/Unsplash. It’s been a year since the devastation of the economy for working Canadians first began. For all the rhetoric that ‘we’re all in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Parliamentarians unite to block NDP wealth tax supported by supermajority of Canadians
Illustration by Canadian Dimension Yesterday was an indictment of Canadian politics. The Liberal Party, Conservative Party, and Bloc Québécois united to oppose a New Democratic Party motion which would have created a one percent tax on an individual’s wealth over $20 million. It would have also provided for an excess
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Modern Monetary Theory could be the key to unlocking Canada’s economic future
MMT has the potential to upset an economic order that posits governments are always subject to private enterprise, not the other way around. Photo by Jamie McCaffrey/Flickr. As payments through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) come to an end and are replaced by less substantial programs, there’s increasing anxiety
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: For the NDP, universal basic income should be a top priority
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during a sitting of the House of Commons, June 2020. The last two federal elections were not what the NDP had hoped for. Many factors have contributed to the party’s decline: the death of Jack Layton in 2011, Canadian nostalgia for Trudeaumania in 2015, and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Modest Rental Supplements Aren’t Enough. We Need More Public Housing Now.
Downtown Eastside (DTES), Vancouver, during the coronavirus pandemic, April 19, 2020. Photo from Flickr. After the spread of COVID-19 resulted in massive job losses, provincial governments across Canada have over the past few weeks patched together various measures aimed at protecting renters from evictions and financial ruin. Although British Columbia’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The War on the Poor in the Age of Austerity
Homeless camp in East Vancouver, September 2017. Photo by Kenny McDonald (Flickr). Last year, I stepped down as an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) after 28 years devoted to resisting an escalating war on the poor. Though I wish it were otherwise, it has been a largely
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why a wealth tax must be part of any plan to end income inequality in Canada
According to a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, fewer than 90 of the richest families in Canada own as much wealth as all of the people living in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island – combined. Photo courtesy Bloomberg News. Earlier this summer, Vancouver-based real-estate mogul
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Looking the Basic Income Gift Horse in the Mouth
Photo by Jason Hargrove
Both the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa and the Wynne Government at Queen’s Park in Toronto have been making noises of late on the subject of Basic Income. The last Ontario Budget, in f…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trade Minister Needs to Break Out of Bureaucrat’s Bubble on TPP
Photo by DonkeyHotey
Are Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland’s officials misleading her about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?
Freeland signed the agreement Thursday in New Zealand, but repeated her assu…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The TPP: What’s Behind It?
Photo by Backbone Campaign
It is hard to believe that poverty and inequality could come to such unconscionable levels in a rich country like Canada. It tells us who is running the show or making the decisions fo…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Lost in the ‘50s with Harper’s anti-terror pablum
Outlaw art made by a person with paranoid schizophrenia. • Artwork by Thomas Zapata Last Friday, viewers of the CBC’s flagship news program, The National, could be forgiven for thinking they were back in the Leave it to Beaver 1950s. Indeed, they ran a saccharine story that would have done
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