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What happened to liberal politicians? Sadly, they got smart.

PMO Photo by Adam Scotti

Whatever happened to liberals? Sadly, they got smart.

For this insight I'm indebted to U.S. journalist Thomas Frank, whose 2004 book, What's the Matter with Kansas? explained the success of right-wing populism in the George W. Bush years and whose recent, Listen, Liberal, described the Hillary Clinton debacle in advance. He lectured in Toronto last month. It served as a booster shot.

I was always perplexed by Obama's infatuation with "smart guys" like Bill Gates or Larry Summers. I'd assumed anyone who knows these certified smarties must also know they come with limits and are less than advertised.

Tags:
workers liberals economic inequality poor politicians Intelligence political ideology professional class

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Columnists

The trouble with 'populist' billionaires is they serve the same old corporate interests

Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr

We toss around the word "billionaire" pretty freely these days, as if it's just another word for a rich guy.

And yet, try this little quiz: you are given a dollar every second, 24 hours a day. At that rate, it takes 12 days for you to become a millionaire. But how long does it take for you to become a billionaire?

Answer: 32 years.

Being a billionaire isn't just about being rich; it's about being mind-bogglingly rich -- rich beyond most people's comprehension.

And yet the mega-fortunes being amassed these days by the newly emergent class of billionaires -- and the enormous influence and control this gives them over our economy and politics -- barely registers as a political issue.

Tags:
economic inequality wealth distribution progressive politics wage gap billionaires right-wing populism

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Photo: Mark Round/flickr
The year as we saw it: Ten charts that defined Ontario in 2016
By
Trish Hennessy Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite
| December 22, 2016

The experts at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Ontario office have been tracking economic developments in Ontario throughout the year. Some problems persist: the gender pay gap, social assistance poverty, the use of expensive payday loans as a last resort because traditional banks fail to serve low-income customers as well as they should.

Some things are shifting. For instance, in some pockets of Ontario, the employment rate has been on the rise. Oshawa, Windsor and Sudbury are the beneficiaries in that department. More attention needs to be paid, however, to job growth in London, Barrie, Guelph, St. Catharines, Kingston, Peterborough and Toronto.

Here are 10 charts that helped define the state of income, work, and the role of government in 2016.

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Columnists

Increased cuts push Canadian health care toward privatization

Photo: David Prasad/flickr

At Canada's Wonderland, you can buy your child a "Fast Lane Pass" so he or she can experience the thrill of pushing ahead of all the other children waiting to get on a ride.

It's excellent preparation for today's world of hyper-privilege -- where the rich get to buy their way to the front of just about every line.

We live in a society that's riddled with elitism and special privilege. One of the few holdouts is medicare, Canada's public health-care system, where a billionaire can't bypass a fast-food worker waiting for medical care. Access is determined by medical need, not wallet size.

Tags:
medicare public health care economic inequality health-care equality health care spending Canadian health care system

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Columnists

'All for ourselves and nothing for other people': The takeover of economics by neoliberalism

Image: Adbusters/flickr

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

-- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

Tags:
Economics neoliberalism economic inequality economists economic policy Canadian economy Canadian debt

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Growth spurt: What skyrocketing child-care fees mean for families
By
Erika Shaker
| December 15, 2016

It's no surprise -- to anyone with even a modest awareness of the subject -- that child care is expensive.

But when we released our recent report (A Growing Concern: 2016 child care fees in Canada's big cities), what did raise some eyebrows was the speed and intensity with which fees have increased over the past two years: on the whole, far more than we (and probably most others) expected.

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Photo: Kurt Bauschardt/flickr
Canada's most vulnerable people are being denied access to banking services
By
Joe Fantauzzi
| December 7, 2016

Income inequality is mounting in Canada, making an already inexcusable wealth gulf worse.

And with wealth comes privilege -- especially in Canadian banking.

Low-income residents of Canada face a significant double standard when it comes to accessing banking services despite urgently wanting them, according to a survey of 268 ACORN Canada members, whose findings were published today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Ontario office.

The survey results show many have been denied access to very basic banking services -- such as cheque cashing or overdraft protection -- from traditional banks.

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Columnists

Failure of democracy has many root causes

Image: Prachatai/flickr

The failure of democracy? An academic study published last summer, which is rather suddenly being hailed in places like the New York Times, claims "an entire global generation has lost faith in democracy." Citizens "have grown jaded." This applies to youth especially, who call elections "unimportant" and say "a democratic political system" is a "bad" way to run things.

But is it really so? Young Americans who enthused over Bernie Sanders in the primaries, skipped the election because it wasn't democratic enough. People in Greece, Spain or Italy, left old parties and built new ones for similar reasons.

Tags:
Cuba economic inequality hillary clinton democratic rights Fidel Castro economic policy identity politics Donald Trump

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Columnists

Cash for access to Justin Trudeau and Liberal cabinet ministers

PMO Photo by Adam Scotti

Looking for a job? The Liberal Party of Canada is hiring. You could be "co-ordinator riding fundraising support and victory fund" or "funding co-ordinator Laurier Club events."

The Laurier Club was set up in 1986. John Turner was Liberal leader. The party had been in power from 1963 until 1984. In that election the Mulroney Conservatives had reduced them to 43 seats.

Finding a way back to power included bringing together business and community leaders with senior MPs, providing lapel pins, and giving members access to "an established network of Laurier Club contacts," as the donation form puts it.

Tags:
fundraising economic inequality bay street banking lobby corporate agenda Trudeau government Laurier Club cash for access

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Photo: Robert Fairchild/flickr
Ontario housing affordability promises are symbolic, not necessarily effective
By
Zohra Jamasi
| November 17, 2016

In his fall economic update, Ontario's Minister of Finance Charles Sousa promised relief to homebuyers, but is it enough to cool rising housing costs in hot markets like Toronto?

The economic statement changed the existing land transfer tax rates listed below that were set in 1989. The changes include increasing the rebate on the land transfer tax from a maximum of $2,000 to $4,000. It also takes into account the reality of skyrocketing home prices by increasing the tax rate on homes above $2 million to 2.5 per cent.

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