Remember how the CCF’s Regina Manifesto (1933) was a pleasure to read? Well, here we find out how the party ‘moderated’ its position. Formulated in the middle of the post-war boom and the Cold War, the Winnipeg Declaration softens the language and ambitions of the CCF, which would go on to become the NDP in 1961.

Kate interviews Dr. William Carroll, Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria, and co-director of the Corporate Mapping Project. The CMP recently released a list of the Fossil-Power Top 50, which provided detailed profiles for the most influential organizations in and around the fossil-fuel sector. Some important Calgary-based organizations made the list— find out why!

What would it take for New Democrats to develop politics suited to our political moment? Team Advantage discusses how the origins of the NDP have shaped its trajectory, the party’s grappling with the realities of neoliberalism, and thinks through what a realistic social-democratic project would look like given the political realities of our day.

Canadian corporate cash stashed overseas hit a record high of $353 billion in 2018. Meanwhile in Alberta, Jason Kenney is lowering the corporate tax rate to 8%, the lowest in Canada.

Toby Sanger, Executive Director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, joins Team Advantage to discuss the problem of tax havens, tax avoidance, the fallout from the Panama and Paradise Papers abroad and at home, Trump’s corporate tax breaks, the myth of job creation, and more.

Team Advantage delves deep into The People’s Republic of Walmart, joined by special guests and authors Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski. You’ll be shocked to learn that economic planning goes on all around you, on a massive scale: Amazon and Walmart are great examples. We go deep into how markets work, the economic calculation debate, the demise of Sears due to cutthroat internal competition, the need to democratize (and not just nationalize!) the corporate planning apparatus, and more.

Team Advantage travels to Winnipeg for the 1919 General Strike Centenary Conference to consider the meaning of Canada’s biggest single labour action! Featuring interviews with David Camfield and Christo Aivalis, Team Advantage gives you a brief overview of the content of the conference, Jane McAlevey‘s talk, the Ukranian Labour Temple, as well as some thoughts and reflections on the event.

Big thanks to the conference organizers and volunteers, and thanks to everyone we met in Winnipeg for the warm welcome!

Rick Bell.
He’s Calgary’s Best Journalist.
His paragraphs? They’re tiny.
His opinions? They’re terrible.
Listen, dear reader, and learn.

Predictably, the Alberta NDP’s focus-grouped and poll-driven strategy to get re-elected failed, despite Jason Kenney’s campaign having multiple run-ins with xenophobia and white nationalism. Who could’ve foreseen after the 2016 Clinton-Trump contest that people would vote for magic nostalgic “make the economy better” beans, even if the leader in question is an asshole? Surely in Alberta, where Ralph Klein was Premier for 14 years, people at the ballot box ask themselves “hrmm I wonder who is more fit to be Premier?”

BONUS CONTENT! Repost of Ricochet Media’s “Unpacking the News” with Andre Goulet, featuring Team Advantage member Stephen Magusiak. Subscribe to Unpacking the News here.

In the lead up to Alberta’s April 16th election, Stephen Magusiak of pressprogress.ca and The Alberta Advantage podcast joins host Andre Goulet to explore (likely future Premier) Jason Kenney’s twisted past as a far-right campus activist in the United States.

Plus: cataloguing the extremist political views of many of Kenney’s United Conservative Party candidates and assessing the successes and failures of the last 4 years of Alberta NDP government under Premier Rachel Notley. This conversation was recorded on April 5th, 2019.