Campaigning on an inflation fighting package as a top priority that is here to stay in British Columbia is a good strategy. Making that policy package a reality would go a long way in defending democracy in BC and show the Rest of Canada how to get in the fight.
Reviving the NDP’s legacy as a mass party requires new innovation for today’s world to recover the purpose that motivated democratization—to grant ordinary citizens the maximum possible role in the governance of Canadian society.
The anti-war movement was the incubator, the training ground for the emergence of the Canadian political economy movement I had been active in the sixties in the peace movement and then later in the Student Union for Peace Action as a full-time organizer.
Important political economy analytics of “capture”, outsourcing, public-private partnership etc., fall short of adequately capturing the degree to which private corporate power has assumed sovereign functions today. A new era for political economy research is just beginning, the time for democratic resistance is now.
My read of history turned into a read of the aggregate data points that influence the formation of political economy; the present state of society’s institutions, informed by history.
Thérèse Casgrain was a social democrat who fought for the women’s right to vote in Québec and became the first woman to be a leader of a Canadian political party.
It is not just Alberta separatism that is on the table: there are 10 questions on the ballot this fall that target immigrants and the province’s legal authority over the federal government.
Bill C-39 adopts a philosophy that labour rights are important, but also sometimes an impediment to “building Canada.” That is not a great message for labour rights.
Immigration policy needs to be about building lives around family, professional aspirations, global connections, freedom from discrimination, social networks, and even finding love. It needs to inherently be a human rights-based policy.
