With just a matter of days until marijuana legalization legislation comes into force in Canada, the CCPA Talking Points podcast asks activists and legal experts about what’s ahead, and who’s left behind, in the new world of cannabis capitalism.

CCPA Talking Points

Talking Points Episode 2: Countdown to cannabis capitalism

On October 3, 2019, the CCPA-BC and UBC's Vancouver School of Economics were pleased to present the 2019 Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture. In an era of high inequality, continuing poverty, homelessness and housing issues, and concerns about the impact of new technologies on work, there is an appetite for considering radical policy shifts. In that context, a basic income has received a lot of attention across the policy discussion spectrum. It has been promoted as a policy tool that can help eliminate poverty, and which can also play a central role in restructuring society and the role of labour within it. The question this lecture considers is, “Is it the right policy for BC now?” David Green—a member of the BC government’s panel looking into a basic income—provides background on trends in the economy that are related to the call for a basic income, and describes the different forms a basic income could take, specify potential goals for it, and describe some of the cost and other practicalities. Following David’s talk members of different local communities share what a basic income in BC could mean — both its potential and its problems. Participants include: - Margot Young (Allard School of Law at UBC) - Chuka Ejeckam (BC Federation of Labour) - Trish Garner (BC Poverty Coalition)

2019 Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture with David Green

Canada, and the rest of the world, is facing a climate crisis. Ahead of Canada's next federal election, Erika Shaker sits down with Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood to discuss carbon tax, just transition, and how we as a nation can address our emissions and help other countries meet their targets.

Talking Points - Episode 5: Climate Breakdown

Learn about the secret weapon Canadian mining companies are using to extract money from developing countries when environmental measures, Indigenous rights and community resistance create democratic roadblocks to their extracting oil, gas and minerals. Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is an increasingly controversial but still overlooked part of Canada's free trade agenda. The Trudeau government has pulled NAFTA's ISDS system out of the new deal with Trump, the USMCA, because of its negative impact on democracy. But Canada continues to maintain the corporate-biased arbitration system in dozens of trade and investment treaties with developing countries where, we must conclude, democratic institutions and environmental stewardship are seen as a nuisance. CCPA Monitor editor Stuart Trew interviews CCPA researcher Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, Mining Watch Canada campaigner Kirsten Francescone and Corporate Europe Observatory campaigner/researcher Pia Eberhardt about their recent work on ISDS and the prospects for eliminating it globally.

Talking Points - Episode 4 - Digging for Dividends

CCPA Monitor editor Stuart Trew speaks to Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, about the events and legacy of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, and the importance of direct action, within and beyond the labour movement, to achieving social justice goals in a new era of retrenching worker rights, intensifying inequality and consolidating corporate power over the democratic process. Read more about the strike and direct action from 1919 to today, check out the March-April 2019 issue of the Monitor: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/monitor-marchapril-2019.

Talking Points - Episode 3: The Winnipeg General Strike, 100 Years Later

In this first episode of the CCPA's rebooted podcast, hosts Alyssa O'Dell and Stuart Trew talk to CCPA economist David Macdonald about the Liberal government's proposals for closing costly tax loopholes, and Melinda St. Louis from Public Citizen about this week's NAFTA negotiations in Ottawa.

Talking Points Episode 1: Fair taxation and fair trade

Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was completed in December 2015. Indigenous activist Clayton Thomas-Muller joins us to discuss reconciliation and its implications, particularly in the context of continued resource extraction on indigenous lands. Reconciliation is the focus of the March/April issue of The Monitor. Clayton Thomas-Muller is the Stop It at the Source campaigner with 350.org Subscribe at: www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast Follow us on Twitter: @ccpa, @creeclayton, @1alexhemingway, @ohhaidavis

Short 4: Reconciliation + #Budget2016

Following the Paris climate summit last year -- and an ambitious 1.5 degree target to limit global warming -- the Trudeau government promised a First Ministers meeting within 90 days. Marc Lee joins us to discuss the outcome of that meeting, the road ahead for climate policy in Canada, and the issue of fossil fuel divestment and "stranded assets." Marc Lee is a CCPA Senior Economist and Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project. Subscribe at: www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast Follow us on Twitter: @ccpa @MarcLeeCCPA @ohhaidavis @1alexhemingway

Short 3: Premiers' climate talks + divestment

In an extended interview, Scott Sinclair discusses the implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for the Canadian economy, jobs, and the dairy and auto sectors. Scott also breaks down the flawed assumptions of some economic modelling used to support the case for deals like the TPP. Scott Sinclair is the Director of the CCPA's Trade and Investment Research Project. Subscribe at: www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast Follow us on Twitter: @ccpa @ohhaidavis @1alexhemingway

Short 2: Extended interview - Scott Sinclair on the TPP

Canada has said it will sign on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a new twelve-country international economic pact. But the corporate-driven TPP is about much more than “free trade”, and concerns are mounting. We go in-depth with four experts: Scott Sinclair, director of the CCPA’s Trade and Investment Research Project; Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce law at the University of Ottawa; Meghan Sali, digital rights specialist at OpenMedia; and Stuart Trew, editor of the CCPA Monitor. Subscribe and see more at: www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast Follow us on Twitter: @ccpa @ohhaidavis @1alexhemingway

Episode 4: What's wrong with the TPP?

Is the gender wage gap fundamentally about discrimination? What are the roles of race and class? What are the solutions? We talk to Kate McInturff, CCPA senior researcher and director of the Centre’s Making Women Count project. Plus Davis and Alex debate voting reform and “apploitation.” Subscribe at: www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast Find the new CCPA Monitor here: https://goo.gl/Htc9EX Find CGP Grey’s YouTube videos on voting systems here: https://goo.gl/rLO1GR

Episode 3: Gender wage gap + voting reform

In our very first holiday short: Alex and Davis take stock of #altpolicy and highlight CCPA's latest research on child care fees, the climate summit and middle-class taxes. Plus we preview our upcoming conversation with Kate McInturff, Senior Researcher and director of CCPA's initiative on gender equality. Happy holidays! Subscribe at: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast

Short 1: Holiday Preview

The first order of business for the Trudeau government has been a tax cut for the 'middle class'. But who actually benefits? CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald breaks it down. Plus Alex answers a question from the listener mail bag, while Davis discovers how the tax system really works. Subscribe at: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast

Episode 2: A not-so-middle-class tax cut + Davis' epiphany

As world leaders meet in Paris to hammer out a new, comprehensive climate change agreement, we talk to Marc Lee about the future of Canadian and international climate policy. Marc is a CCPA Senior Economist and climate policy expert based in Vancouver. All that, plus Davis shares her thoughts on the "nannygate" scandal. alt.policy is hosted by Alex Hemingway and Davis Carr. Subscribe at: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/podcast

Episode 1: Paris primer + 'nannygate'

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice. In the Talking Points podcast, we discuss major policy and economics questions facing Canada today with CCPA economists and researchers, policy-makers, friends in the labour and social justice movement, and others.

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Talking Points Episode 2: Countdown to cannabis capitalism

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