Living in an age of economic, environmental and technological insecurity, and faced with the enormous power of tech billionaires, giant corporations, and unpredictable governments, people need to come together now more than ever. This in spite of the social isolation and political polarization so common to our time. We can overcome this with the power of the Many.
Politics and economics have been the key ways I have discovered and understood the world. It was my union that changed my life for the better. We campaigned against the privatization of Air Canada and the deregulation of the transportation industry. We fought contract concessions.
We were at the forefront of the anti-free trade battles in the 1980s and ’90s, educating and mobilizing the membership with an unparalleled intensity. After a narrow loss for the anti-free trade movement in that 1988 federal election, Canada firmly embarked on the neoliberal project.
Sadly, our predictions were true. Hundreds of thousands of workers lost jobs as businesses chased the cheapest labour, regulations were undermined, the tax base was eroded and public services pinched, with the iron dominance of global capitalist logic. And tragically, these same issues continue to plague us decades later.
The battles today are existential and urgent. The earth is both burning up and faced with deluges of unprecedented storms. Climate refugees are joining the ranks of those displaced by war, or economic necessity. Economic and social inequality are destabilizing societies. The majority are increasingly squeezed economically, struggling to make ends meet. A few tech billionaires can summon vast sums of wealth to live an elite lifestyle divorced from the Many, and pump millions of dollars into winning elections.
Democracy is increasingly fragile, and many people have lost faith that any government can help them. However, democracy is worth fighting for because governments make and enforce laws, and can mobilize tremendous resources. They can limit the wealth of corporations and individuals and they can create guardrails to limit the negative impact of AI.
There are many access points to today’s progressive politics. Activists can engage around the struggle to keep health care public, against austerity, for a living wage, tenants’ rights, against the genocide in Gaza, for action on our stalled reconciliation with First Nations, and so much more.
The role of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is to provide the research that validates progressive initiatives and feeds their struggles. Our health desk is feeding the campaign to stop the erosion of our health care system. Our AI desk has published a citizen’s guide to AI and is delving into the dangers posed by giant data centres. Our trade desk is the lead in analyzing and critiquing the trade issues from investor state clauses to the latest round of CUSMA. We have been tracking the cuts to government programs as funds are chopped to beef up Canada’s military agenda. Our gender desk joined in the work to push back against federal cuts to gender programs. Our workers’ rights initiative draws on a network of labour researchers to work on the latest issues facing working people. Our work on climate justice continues, monitoring the impact of Canada’s retreat from our climate initiatives.
In addition to our CEO report, detailing the growing gap between CEOs and the rest of us, we produce the Alternative Federal Budget and alternative provincial budgets. We also create living wage calculations in many parts of the country. Housing and tenants’ rights. Education, child care. These are focal points of our research that can power campaigns and influence public opinion.
In the media, the CCPA is cited more than any other progressive research think tank—we’re just behind the Fraser Institute. Our website, policyalternatives.ca, drew 2.6K visits last year.
While our work is extensive and impactful, organizing remains the key to change. There is such power in meeting people face to face. Union organizers still go to people’s homes to discuss joining a union. Political candidates go door to door to look people in the eye as they make their case. People coming together to demonstrate publicly has a visual and emotional power. Taking to the streets is an important way to build momentum and confidence.
Movements can sway politics and engage people to get involved. They can develop leadership and engage communities. They educate and mobilize people, offering them the opportunity to act on their beliefs. They are pressure points against the few in power.
Unions continue to be a key way to engage in progressive politics and challenge power. Signing a union card can not only lead to the material improvement of a worker’s situation, but also offer them a path to learn, to develop leadership skills and to engage others.
Electoral politics offer people another path to act on their values and beliefs. Political activism can lead to winning power to concretely make change. The first Walmart collective agreement and the first Amazon certification in Canada are in B.C., where an NDP government has enacted better labour laws. Ten-dollar-a-day child care in Canada began in Quebec with a social democratic leaning PQ government. Elections can matter, and can lead to change. A better world is possible by pressing for and organizing for better government.
In Canada, we have not faced the extremes of U.S. politics or those of the far right in Europe or South America. We believe that we, as a people, are more moderate, and that has been the case up to now. However, there is a continuing danger of the impact of U.S.-style politics in Canada, whether through trade wars, tech colonization, and even Alberta separatist politics. Our unity around standing up to U.S. trade bullying should not prevent us from pushing back on governments for progress on climate change, public services, or other progressive policies. The trade fight must not be a fig leaf hiding conservative policies that take Canada backwards.
The CCPA has been impacting public opinion for 46 years. We will continue to feed movements and offer the credible and crucial research that can continue to push back against neoliberalism.
