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On October 20, the Broadbent Institute hosted NDP Leader Avi Lewis in conversation with economist Isabella Weber on a democratic socialist vision for Canada’s economy.
Isabella Weber is a German economist and Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose research focuses on inflation, price stabilization, international trade, and the history and development of economic thought. Her new book, Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy (Penguin Random House, 2026), argues that stopping the rise of the far-right will require putting affordability, dignity, essential needs, and democratic control over corporate power at the centre of economic policy.
Avi Lewis, the leader of Canada’s NDP, echoed these calls in the Canadian context, proposing affordability and economic security for working people as the central political offer that Canadians deserve as we move towards an economy of the future.
In a fireside chat, Lewis engaged with Weber on her ideas, policy proposals, their application to the Canadian economy, and how we can build the collective economic future that brings power back to working people across the world.
LINKS
Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy (Penguin Random House, 2026)
2024 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture ft. Isabella Weber – ‘Profits, Inflation and Survival in an Age of Emergencies: Why We Need a New Paradigm,’ Perspectives Journal.
‘She Has the Answer to Affordability. Have Canadians Been Listening?’ October 19, 2026, Clement Nocos, Perspectives Journal.
