Andrew Jackson is senior policy adviser at the Broadbent Institute, and the author of The Fire and the Ashes: Rekindling Democratic Socialism, available from BTL Books.
Truly massive public and private investments will have to made in research, in energy conservation and in the production of renewable energy over the next few years if we are to meet and exceed the goal recently set in Paris to stop to avoid global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees.
A well-designed system of income tested benefits for low income workers, including disability benefits, is needed to set a basic income floor for all Canadians and to replace our inadequate and punitive social assistance system.
Turner is clear that any move in this direction should be undertaken by central banks, not by governments seizing control of the printing press, and is certainly aware of the risk of inflation if directly financed deficits get out of hand.
Viewing the TPP as a trade agreement masks its significance as a tool that will, like NAFTA, be used to challenge government regulation in the public interest. Investors from across the TPP will be able to appeal regulatory decisions before secret tribunals, giving them rights that do not exist for domestic companies under Canadian law.
While the resource economy and traditional manufacturing struggle, we have largely failed to build new sources of wealth in knowledge intensive goods and services.
The biggest gap in our current labour market policy is the lack of opportunities for life-long learning.
A key challenge for Canadians is to increase the number of highly skilled, highly productive, well paid job sought by the many young people leaving our post-secondary educational institutions.
The right-wing have a strong tendency to attack teacher unions, claiming that they stand in the way of good educational performance. The truth is that a high quality educational system demands highly skilled and committed teachers.
Canada has shifted from being one of the most redistributive countries in the OECD to one of the least redistributive.
