Out of Left Field

We're back, folks! After a bit of a hiatus we return to chat about the recent American election, some of our favourite moments from the Trump presidency, the upcoming economic collapse and of course everybody's favourite: COVID-19.

Today we are joined by author Yves Engler to discuss the not-so-benign role of Canada on the world stage. He challenges the widely held view that Canada is a "peace-keeping country" and shows that from the mining sector to backing coups in foreign countries, Canada does its best to protect its own corporate interests abroad at the expense of democracy and human rights.

You can check out his content here:

https://yvesengler.com

The crew returns today for some hop takes on all the recent elections! From the NDP's crushing victory in British Columbia, the ongoing bedlam South of the border in the United States, and even further South with the victory of the Movement Towards Socialism party in Bolivia.

We give our thoughts on how the NDP will govern BC, what's going to happen in a few short days in America, and how the MAS victory in Bolivia might affect the region. We also take a few moments to dunk on Elon Musk near the end of the episode, because why not?

You can read the article Ben mentioned here:

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/after-john-horgans-smashing-bc-ndp-victory-now-is-the-time-to-be-bold

Today we are joined by director of the Centre for Future Work, Jim Stanford! We discuss his recent findings regarding how union organising has increased during the pandemic, how COVID is laying bare the contradictions in Canadian capitalism, and how in times of crisis people need someone to have their back.

You can check out the Centre for Future Work as well as Jim's article below:

https://centreforfuturework.ca/

https://centreforfuturework.ca/2020/09/09/in-a-crisis-you-want-someone-at-your-back/

Senior BC Political Correspondent Ian Bushfield is back on the show for a very special BC election forecast episode! With the first (and only) leaders debate just behind us, we explore the political situation in British Columbia, the state of the BC NDP, Green and Liberal parties, and what this might mean for the politics of BC going forward.

You can watch the full leaders debate here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELFmhJ0x7oY

Check out Ian's podcasts below for more BC and Vancouver political commentary:

https://www.politicoast.ca/

https://www.cambiereport.ca/

You can follow Ian on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/ibushfield

Also, apologies for the lacklustre audio quality on this episode, Ben was not in his natural recording habitat so we had to improvise!

Today we are joined by three activists from the Victoria based Retail Action Network! We chat about their organisation, their work in the community helping retail and service sector workers, union activism and more!

If you want to get involved, or if you live outside of Victoria and want to network with them check them out here:

https://retailaction.ca/

The Canadian CERB has given voice to many supporters of Universal Basic Income. Today we discuss UBI, some of the potential benefits of it, and as well as many ways that it could fall short of its promises. Is UBI progressive policy? Could it have unintended consequences? Is it a worthwhile endeavor, or are the demands for it a symptom of a more systemic anemia of the Canadian social safety net?

We also have a cameo appearance by Andre Goulet to announce the formation of the Harbinger Media Network which we, along with many other left wing Canadian shows, will be a part of!

https://harbingermedianetwork.com/

On today's episode, educator and union activist Adrienne Roberts joins us to discuss school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Co-host of Out of Left Field Mackenzie made a cameo appearance on Kino Lefter, the socialist movie review podcast!

We've been a little behind on our episodes as of late, but we've got some great interviews booked and coming up soon, so hopefully this will tide you all over until we can get those recorded & posted.

And yes, we did get permission from Kino Lefter to post this premium episode of theirs!

Today on the show we have Green party leadership candidate Meryam Haddad to talk about her campaign to turn the Green Party of Canada socialist, the Canadian Green New Deal, defunding the police and much more.