Alberta Advantage Podcast

Twenty years ago, workers at the Calgary Herald went on what would become an eight-month strike, citing editorial overreach, a torqued political slant, and unfair treatment in the newsroom. Herald striker Terry Inigo-Jones joins Team Advantage to discuss his experience taking on the Herald and its then-owner, Conrad Black. This story has it all, folks— Canadian media concentration, scabs who you'l...

Jason Kenney's ultra-secretive War Room, officially known as the Canadian Energy Centre, is tasked with taking on critics of Alberta's energy industry in real time. With a budget of $30 million in public funds and no transparency, we can only assume that they spent all of their money on their first video ad, which they have now pulled from their YouTube channel. Join Team Advantage as they respond...

Andray Domise recently wrote an opinion piece for Maclean's: "The left must stand against capitalism. Now." Andray joins Team Advantage to discuss his argument. Why must "progressives" or left-leaning folks necessarily oppose capitalism? How is capitalism's profit motive related to a range of social, economic and ecological problems our society faces? Why is it important to read classic texts from...

Alberta's post-secondary campuses recently adopted the Chicago Principles —a specific kind of commitment to free speech— as per the orders of Kenney's UCP government. Roberta Lexier from Mount Royal University joins Team Advantage to dig into the matter. What is this sudden concern with free speech about? Don't conservatives already run most of Alberta's campuses? Are content warnings really that...

Alberta's UCP government recently announced a plan to reduce surgical wait times: farming out 80,000 surgeries to private, for-profit providers. Ricardo Acuna, Executive Director of the Parkland Institute, joins Team Advantage to discuss the legacy of private for-profit health service delivery in Alberta. Has it ever worked? Does it produce any beneficial results? What does it do to our public hea...

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...

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 d...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In the interest of inter-provincial solidarity, bridging Canada's language divide, and making Alberta conservatives mad by saying Québec is good and cool: buckle up for an episode about Québec's 1972 General Strike! Joined by Central Canada Correspondent Brendan, Team Advantage takes a look at the radical Québecois politics of the late 1960s and early 1970s, culminating in a general strike in 1972...

Isn't it weird that when Pierre Elliott Trudeau proposed a National Energy Policy in the 1980s, the spectre of nationalization was a horror the oilpatch couldn't withstand— but today, we find this same oilpatch wrapping itself in the Canadian flag? Professor Shane Gunster joins Team Advantage to discuss his recent piece in the CCPA Monitor, "Extractive populism and the future of Canada," and unpac...

The Srsly Wrong Boys and Team Advantage join forces to roast Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! Find out why the Canadian Woke Bae's progressive neoliberalism has been immensely disappointing! Consider the danger of performative-progressive politics in an age of far-right populism! Be amazed by the co-optation of substantial policy changes, and wonder at the smooth veneer of maintaining the s...

Writer James Davidge and artist Nick Johnson join Team Advantage to discuss their graphic novel, 1st Legion of Utopia, an "epic tale of killers, queers, and the birth of Canadian socialism." The story follows a violent world of social unrest, political excitement, and pansy clubs— set in the Great Depression, it explores the forces surrounding the founding of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federati...

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! corporatemapping...

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 ecological and political realities of our day.

Canadian corporate cash 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, the results of Trump...

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, t...

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 tha...