Scapegoating newcomers has become a convenient distraction from policy failure in Canada.

Immigration is too low AND ALSO Canada id one of the countries most responsible for taking in climate refugees. So our choice is to open our doors or slam them on the people whose houses we burned down.

We can have a sober national conversation about how much immigration is suitable to meet our social and economic goals. But scapegoating immigrants for the state of housing and health care obscures the real causes of these crises and stokes resentment against vulnerable members of our communities.

Reconciliation isn’t about token gestures, museum visits, or diversity training, writes @pampalmater.com. True reconciliation means respecting Indigenous peoples’ right to say 'No'—to development on their lands, to discriminatory laws, and to ongoing abuse.

"We have a seemingly pointless, but probably rather financially wasteful, scheme of half-hearted militarization." canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

Doug Ford’s new housing bill has been sold as efficiency reform, yet it prioritizes landlords over tenants. Long-term renters will face faster evictions, fewer protections, and higher rents while corporate landlords consolidate even more control of an already deeply financialized market.

Crucial intervention by Leora Smith of Toronto's Community Justice Collective (which I'm on the Board of) on why Bill 60, the so-called "Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act", will protect financialized landlords, not tenants Via @canadiandimension.bsky.social canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

A proposal to conscript hundreds of thousands of public servants into the Canadian Army Reserves collapsed almost instantly, but not before revealing a defence bureaucracy lost in its own rhetoric.

A short-lived proposal to recruit public servants into a 300,000-strong reserve force shows how deeply confused Canada’s defence planning has become, writes @uottawa.ca's Paul Robinson.

“Banker's Budget,” Evin Collis (@evincollis.bsky.social), 2025

As Canada expands its secret military operations under US command, the government keeps the names of fallen soldiers hidden. This Remembrance Day, what does it mean to honour the dead when the public isn’t even told who, or what, they’re dying for?

Doug Ford’s new housing law promises efficiency, but its real purpose is to clear the way for evictions and profits. Leora Smith of Toronto's Community Justice Collective on why the "Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act" will protect financialized landlords, not tenants:

Doug Ford’s new housing bill has been sold as efficiency reform, yet it prioritizes landlords over tenants. Long-term renters will face faster evictions, fewer protections, and higher rents while corporate landlords consolidate even more control of an already deeply financialized market.

My latest for @canadiandimension.bsky.social on how scapegoating immigrants for Canada's problems prevents us from finding real solutions to them. #cdnpoli #canada canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

Scapegoating newcomers has become a convenient distraction from policy failure in Canada.

We can have a sober national conversation about how much immigration is suitable to meet our social and economic goals. But scapegoating immigrants for the state of housing and health care obscures the real causes of these crises and stokes resentment against vulnerable members of our communities.

« It’s tempting to believe that the performative panic of our politicos indicates some genuine issue with Canada’s finances,but Canada’s actual deficit is quite small in macroeconomic terms. Canada has reduced its deficit more rapidly than other OECD countries following the pandemic-related surge… »

This. We are not limited by our finances. We are limited by our resources and imagination. And we can increase our resources! Public investments in education, in training nurses, doctors, skilled labour, artists, engineers, and people with imaginations! We can do it. We can start now.

An excellent, clear-eyed assessment. ‘Austerity’ bites the wrong people in the ass. And if we really have a deficit problem, let’s marry austerity to tax increases for both people and corporations. We’ve had 60 years of rate reductions and it’s time to change direction a bit.

It's an extremely effective cudgel, because I'm not sure anything could convince my 80 year old dad that the deficit is not a dire emergency despite it having absolutely zero impact on him for his entire life so far.

The deficit’s primary function is political: it is a cudgel used to enforce unpopular policies and coerce the public into accepting a diminished quality of life in the name of private profit. We must stop mistaking this political strategy for economic necessity.

Our politicians use the deficit as a rhetorical cudgel to keep their friends rich while pushing austerity on the rest of us.

Canada’s debt is modest, self-financed, and stable. Yet we are told to accept austerity as the “responsible” path forward. Deficit panic is really a strategy to limit what’s politically imaginable—universal services, public housing, and climate action.

In 1933, the CCF warned that private finance sacrifices the majority to profiteers. The Regina Manifesto, the party's founding policy document, called for public ownership of banks to serve society, not speculators. Today, its lessons are more relevant than ever.

Rather than insulating Canada from an increasingly unpredictable White House, Carney’s policies are reinforcing our alignment with the United States in military, economic, and foreign policy matters. As Owen Schalk writes, these choices will deepen dependence and weaken sovereignty.

Canada’s deficit is projected to rise by $17B, yet ordinary folks face cuts to essential services while the ultra-rich and corporations avoid billions in taxes. Closing loopholes and taxing offshore wealth could fully fund health care, housing, and education—proving the crisis is a political choice.

"The govt’s approach to this deficit is deeply concerning....The wealthiest individuals and largest corporations stand to capture the lion’s share of any gains, leaving everyday Canadians—both now and in the future—to shoulder the cost." – @c4tf.bsky.social canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

"The major threat to Canadian survival today is American control of the Canadian economy. The major issue of our times is not national unity but national survival, and the fundamental threat is external, not internal." —Waffle Manifesto: For an Independent Socialist Canada, 1969

Canada has been suffering years of economic stagnation, deteriorating public services, and increasing popular distrust. Yet our government has decided that what we need to do is spend more money on defence—and not just more money, but a lot more money than what we are spending at present.

Canadian corporations thrived in Qadhafi’s Libya, winning massive oil and construction contracts. But when Libya pushed back to nationalize its resources, Ottawa dropped the language of diplomacy and sided with business. Read an excerpt from Owen Schalk's new book, TARGETING LIBYA:

It is deeply concerning that Washington is preparing for war with Venezuela despite the absence of any evidence linking its leader to the drug trade. Canada must take immediate steps to ensure that its technologies and policies do not make it complicit in another unlawful US military campaign.

Our governments have allowed the private sector to make a mess of our housing system. We know from our nation’s history that only strong non-market alternatives will restore affordability and get people into the homes they deserve.

A great pub day review of The A Word: A Global History of the Abortion Struggle in @canadiandimension.bsky.social. Such a joy to have had the chance worked on this amazing book. canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

The goal of the “free trade” agreements was never to free trade. As big business stressed, what they really wanted was freedom for capital. Freedom of business organizations to invest in any country without government interference and the freedom to repatriate their profits as they so wished.

"We believe the alternative to a trade oriented economic strategy is self-reliance. Increasing Canada’s economic self-reliance is the key to self-determination politically, socially and culturally." (First published in the September 1987 issue of CD)

C4TF’s Jared A. Walker & @silasxuereb.bsky.social in @canadiandimension.bsky.social on why a deficit shouldn’t be shouldered by workers and why the wealthy should foot the bill instead canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

Canada’s deficit is projected to rise by $17B, yet ordinary folks face cuts to essential services while the ultra-rich and corporations avoid billions in taxes. Closing loopholes and taxing offshore wealth could fully fund health care, housing, and education—proving the crisis is a political choice.

The gospel was never on the side of conquest or capitalism but of liberation. It’s time for Canadian Christians to remember their prophets—and to say clearly that politics should be about loving our neighbours, not taking revenge and practicing hate, as Trump and his minions would have us do.

“But by the early 2000s, the NDP—descendant of the old CCF and once an incubator of social gospel ideals—had grown wary of religious language altogether. Blaikie lamented the turn.” Great article on the rise and fall of social gospel movement. I still have hope canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

A good analysis and warning by @donalgill.bsky.social: mainstream politicians take note, we *really* do not want to be going down the UK’s path.

The rise of reactionary anti-system populism in Canada will be difficult to prevent unless the centre and left actively confront the deepening gaps in our democratic system before further economic turbulence intensifies the crisis.

The gospel was never on the side of conquest or capitalism but of liberation. It’s time for Canadian Christians to remember their prophets—and to say clearly that politics should be about loving our neighbours, not taking revenge and practicing hate, as Trump and his minions would have us do.

Mark Carney’s austerity, militarism and fossil fuel expansion plan is setting the stage for a wave of resistance. From Indigenous blockades to public sector strikes, workers and communities are already pushing back against Ottawa’s new class offensive.

We should never underestimate the explosive potential of Indigenous resistance in Canada. The Carney government will find that its drive to unleash polluting oil and gas projects—steamrolling over Indigenous rights in the process—is a risky proposition, writes @johncke.bsky.social.

There are important preliminary skirmishes taking place as the #Carney led class war agenda heats up but the building of a united and powerful resistance is an urgent task. My column this month for @canadiandimension.bsky.social . canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

On paper, Canada’s economy is growing. In reality, high household debt—mostly mortgages—is siphoning a big portion of our incomes to banks and landlords. GDP might be rising, but most Canadians are stuck just making ends meet.

NEW: Trump’s “war on drugs” in Venezuela looks more like regime change than law enforcement—and, according to a new report by @ploughsharesca.bsky.social, Canadian-made technology is playing a role. Ottawa can’t claim clean hands if its weapons are used in an illegal war.

This would go a long way to explaining why we have not seen so-called Canada condemn any of the American extrajudicial murders of Venezuelan, and Colombian, citizens.

It is deeply concerning that Washington is contemplating war with Venezuela despite the absence of any evidence linking its leader to the drug trade. Canada must take immediate steps to ensure that its technologies and policies do not make it complicit in another unlawful US military campaign.