Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has decided that Alberta should hold a Senate election— and Progress Alberta’s Executive Director, Duncan Kinney, has answered the call. Duncan joins Team Advantage to discuss the rich history of Senatorial activism, declares his support for Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism, and weighs in on the important issues facing Canada’s chamber of sober second thought.
Follow Duncan @duncankinney and support his campaign at kinney4senate.ca
Peter Lougheed is often fondly remembered as Alberta’s “good” Premier across the political spectrum. But what was so great about Alberta’s first Progressive Conservative Premier, who kicked off 44 years of uninterrupted rule? Team Advantage digs into Peter Lougheed’s fabled economic development and planning, his treatment of Alberta’s workers, and the role of the 1970s oil-price spikes in mythologizing his reign.
Want to learn more? Listen to Part One and Part Two of our episodes on Social Credit, our episode on the National Energy Program, and our episode comparing Grant Notley and Rachel Notley, Notley vs Notley.
Filmmaker, climate activist, educator, and federal NDP candidate Avi Lewis joins Team Advantage to discuss his leap into electoral politics. Was the reaction to his work at the 2016 federal convention what made him decide to toss his hat in the ring? How does he expect to maintain his integrity and his outspoken voice within this new setting? Why does Canada seem to be missing the left-populist moment? And what does he think of his family’s legacy within the NDP?
Follow Avi on twitter @avilewis and learn more about his campaign at avilewis.ca.
For ten days every summer, Calgary’s corporate office workers dress up like cowboys and enjoy a western-themed festival of settler colonialism. What work is the Stampede doing when it draws on the myth of the frontier— especially today, when it is largely funded by fossil fuel companies? Kimberley Williams, author of Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism, joins Team Advantage to discuss the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
Find the book in Calgary at Shelf Life Books, and online through the publisher at fernwoodpublishing.ca.
Did you know that the Canadian state once funded the National Action Committee on the Status of Women Canada, funding salaries and projects that allowed for shelters, child-care and daycare centres, women’s drop-in centres, bookstores, and crisis lines? Writer and activist Nora Loreto joins Team Advantage to discuss her book, Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age. What happened to the feminist movement over the course of the neoliberal turn, and what opportunities and pitfalls does the modern digital landscape offer feminist and social-movement struggles?
Follow Nora on twitter @NoLore, visit her website at noraloreto.ca, and purchase her book at fernwoodpublishing.ca. Check out the Sandy and Nora podcast at sandyandnora.com.
Guest host and seasoned newsletter-writer Clinton Hallahan sits down with writer, director, filmmaker, prankster, organizer and comedian Sean Devlin. In addition to joining The Yes Men in their exploits and storming the stage to frighten Stephen Harper, Sean Devlin is a seasoned stand-up comic, and his debut comedy album, Airports, Animals, is out July 9, 2021. Check out this interview to explore the burning question on everyone’s mind: who is Sean Devlin’s favourite racist?
Check out Airports, Animals at arts-crafts.ca. Sean’s work is also available through seandevlin.website and seandevlin.bandcamp.com.
The coal-mining town of Blairmore, Alberta elected a slate of Mine Workers’ Union nominees to town council in 1933— resulting in Canada’s first communist town council. With Mayor Bill Knight at the council’s helm, they would proceed to implement a range of substantive measures. They gathered fame for abolishing Remembrance Day and replacing it with October Revolution Day, naming the park after Karl Marx, and renaming main street “Tim Buck Boulevard” (after the Communist Party’s leader). On the centenary year of the Communist Party of Canada, Team Advantage explores this rare instance of “red municipalism” in Canada.
What can be gleaned from a lifetime on the Canadian left? Economist, policy advisor an author Andrew Jackson joins guest-host Aaron Giovannone to discuss Andrew’s new book, The Fire and the Ashes: Rekindling Democratic Socialism. What fires might be taken from the altars of the past? How has the NDP changed since the 1960s? What was it like to face the neoliberal turn in British Columbia? What role did policy research historically play within the NDP? What should the role of the labour movement be today?
Check out Andrew Jackson’s book directly from the publisher, Between the Lines.
Check out Aaron Giovannone’s podcast, Sweater Weather, at sweaterweatherpod.com.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced a long-forgotten feature of economic planning: industrial policy. What should our economy look like? What infrastructures should we build? What technologies should we develop? And who should benefit from it all?
Journalist and author Leigh Phillips joins Team Advantage to discuss why industrial policy is the sexiest topic on the left today, examining important aspects of technological advancement, Canadian regionalism and economic development.
The Alberta Federation of Labour held its 52nd Constitutional Convention over May 13-15 2021. In a somewhat rare development, two candidates vied for the Presidency of the AFL: challenger Susan Cake, and incumbent Gil McGowan. Cole Rockarts, union organizer and writer for rankandfile.ca, joins Team Advantage to discuss what happened at convention, and how Alberta’s labour movement is organizing in response to Jason Kenney’s UCP government. Follow Cole on Twitter @colerockarts.