Alberta Advantage Podcast

Jason Kenney's UCP government recently wrested control of about $78.5 billion in pension assets from working Albertans, and is musing aloud about using it to prop up Alberta oil and gas companies. What's behind this outrageous pension grab? What is AIMCo going to do with this cash? How did we get into a situation where people's deferred wages (pensions) create these vast pools of capital that can be used against workers?

It's been a week, hasn't it? Team Advantage gets together to discuss a week of rapid-fire bad news. What is one to do when all the "checks and balances" our political system is supposed to have seem to get stripped away? Might there be some sort of power that could be organized to intervene? Listen in wonder as Team Advantage explains the difference between a legal strike position (which is very difficult to attain) and an illegal strike (including wildcat and sympathy strikes, which tend be highly effective, but are obviously illegal so you should never do them).

In late August 2019 at the Calgary Petroleum Club, representatives from Birchcliff Energy and Tourmaline Oil presented a remarkable piece of petro-propaganda to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. It was instantly retweeted by Jason Kenney, stating "Enough is enough. No more apologies. We are proud of Alberta and Canada's oil and gas." Join Team Advantage as we watch and analyze this crypto-fascist piece of media! The ad in question is produced by Canadians for Canada's Future, and is located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlAil_zuyBw For more about this industry front group, check out their website: https://www.canadiansforcanadasfuture.ca

Jason Kenney's new budget is making Albertans everywhere pay more so that large, profitable corporations can get billions of dollars in tax cuts. Team Advantage assembles to survey the damage. What's with the attacks on organized labour? What's the point of austerity, if it's proven not to create jobs or growth?

Far from instituting a worker's state, labour under Alberta's NDP saw the government pursue wage containment and strike avoidance, often in the process undermining their own union supporters. Why is it that a supposed left-wing government prided itself on delivering zero-percent increases to public sector unions? How did the NDP's failure to take on the fossil fuel industry make them look weak and hypocritical? Nick Driedger joins Team Advantage to discuss his latest piece for online publication Organizing Work, entitled "The Ugly Reality of Unions under Social Democracy." Read it here: https://organizing.work/2019/10/the-ugly-reality-of-unions-under-social-democracy/ Check out Organizing Work and the WOBcast at https://organizing.work

What's the logic behind "chasing the centre" as an electoral strategy, and why is it no longer holding up in the age of populism? Why is the strategy of targeting swing voters no longer the key to winning elections? Team Advantage assembles to examine the Median Voter Theorem, assess its assumptions, and explain why this model is failing. This episode features audio from an Alberta NDP election ad, posted April 3rd, 2019: https://twitter.com/albertaNDP/status/1113537577078759424

Alberta's minimum wage is now "frozen," which means it will slowly be eroded by inflation. How many minimum- or low-wage workers are there in Alberta, and what do they look like? Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta, joins Team Advantage to examine the consequences of the wage freeze, consider who's affected, discuss the realities of low-wage housing, and think on what to do about that pesky 1%. Twitter: @JoelFrench and @PIAlberta Read PIA's report here: https://www.pialberta.org/lowwage2019 Read the CCPA's report here: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/unaccommodating Read about the 1% doing great here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-s-top-1-per-cent-saw-fastest-income-acceleration-overall-decrease-in-taxes-1.4609196

Martin Lukacs joins Team Advantage to discuss his new book, The Trudeau Formula: Seduction and Betrayal in an Age of Discontent. How does Trudeau represent a rehabilitation of capitalism's image after the Harper years? What has been the purpose of Trudeau's "reconciliation industry?" How does Trudeau understand popular struggle? And last but not least, what happened with the LEAP manifesto during the 2016 Federal NDP convention in Edmonton? Purchase Martin's book online: http://www.trudeauformula.com

What's the history of these Green New Deal proposals? What's in them, anyways? And how do the policies proposed by AOC, Bernie and the NDP's "Power to Change: A new deal for climate action and good jobs" compare? Team Advantage takes a critical look at the history of GND proposals, comparing and contrasting their strengths and weaknesses.

After delivering a $4.5 billion corporate tax cut, Jason Kenney's Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta's Finances proposed that Alberta's expenditures are much too high. Chaired by Janice MacKinnon (who oversaw draconian cuts that shut down 52 rural hospitals in 1993 as NDP Finance Minister in Saskatchewan), the report recommended a $600 million cut to Alberta's operational spending and a four-year freeze. Trevor Harrison, director of the Parkland Institute, joins Team Advantage to discuss an alternate blue-ribbon report he recently co-authored, Cutting Through the Blue Ribbon: A Balanced Look at Alberta's Finances. How does Alberta's economy stack up when compared to other provinces and the Canadian average? How does Alberta's debt compare to the balance-books of other provinces? Are Alberta's expenditures really out of line? What would happen if Alberta used stable revenue streams (taxation!) to finance its expenditures, and used its non-renewable resource revenues to fund the necessary transition? All this and more... Check out the report here: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/cutting_through_the_blue_ribbon