Canada After Harper
His Ideology-fuelled Attack on Canadian Society and Values, and How We Can Resist and Create the Country We Want
Finn, Ed (editor)
Date Written: 2015-08-13
Publisher: Lorimer, Canada
Year Published: 2015
Pages: 400pp Price: $22.95 ISBN: 978-1-4594-0943-9
Library of Congress Number: FC640.C32 2015 Dewey: 971.07'3
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX17841
Essays documenting the breadth and depth of the Harper government's attack on institutions, policies, and programs that embody values and principles shared by most Canadians: education, health care, women's rights, science and research, the economy, labour unions, water and natural resources, and Aboriginal affairs.
Abstract:
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From the publisher:
Most Canadians know that Stephen Harper has had a tremendous impact on the country since becoming prime minister in 2006. But few have the in-depth knowledge of how far his transformation has gone -- what has already been done, and what the consequences will be in the future.
This book brings together Canadian experts in a wide variety of areas. They document key changes put in place by the Harper government. There have been dramatic changes in education, health care, women's rights, science and research, guiding the economy, labour unions, water and natural resources, and aboriginal affairs. Most of these measures have been designed to be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.
Readers will for the first time grasp the breadth and depth of the Harper attack on institutions, policies, and programs that embody values and principles shared by most Canadians. Each chapter documents the dangers of a government fixated on the needs of corporations and the one percent, blinded to our environmentally unsustainable lifestyle, and expanding surveillance and security measures to intimidate and threaten opponents.
The contributors to this book believe that engagement in public affairs by the citizenry can trump the power of the elites and the giant corporations who are the winners of the Harper era. As activists in public life, they propose strategies and measures to create a Canada that champions fairness, social justice, real democracy in our government institutions, action to reverse global warming, and a constructive role in world affairs.
Table of Contents
Preface: Let's Make Canada the Great County it Could Be -- Ed Finn
Introduction: For Canada, the American Model is Unsafe at Any Speed -- Ralph Nader
PART 1: The Environment
Chapter 1: Finding Solutions to Save the Environment -- David Suzuki
Chapter 2: Water, Water, Clean Water -- But Not Everywhere -- Maude Barlow
Chapter 3: Religious Fundamentalism vs. the Environment -- Joyce Nelson
Chapter 4: The Environment: Good Stories, Bad Policies, and What to Do -- Peter Robinson
PART 2: The Economy
Chapter 5: The Economy: Whose Interests Are Being Served? -- Andrew Jackson
Chapter 6: What Trade Agreements Have Meant for Canada -- Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew
Chapter 7: Unions: Their Role in Democracy and Prosperity -- Lynne Fernandez
Chapter 8: Plutocracy Awaits Us -- Linda McQuaig
Chapter 9: Tax Cuts: Part of the Problem, Not the Solution -- Trish Hennessy
PART 3: The Social Issues
Chapter 10: Health Care: A Public Right or a Private Option -- Colleen Fuller
Chapter 11: Gender Inequality and Women's Voices -- Kate McInturff
Chapter 12: Canada's Youth: From Passivism to Activism -- Nora Loreto
Chapter 13: The Globalization of Education: The Implications for Canada -- Larry Kuehn
Chapter 14: Child Poverty Must Be Eradicated -- Ed Finn
Chapter 15: Indigenous Rights and Anti-Colonial Struggle -- Arthur Manuel
PART 4: Government and Politics
Chapter 16: Restoring Democracy in Canada -- Duff Conacher
Chapter 17: Canada's Progressive Politics Need Renewal -- Murray Dobbin
Chapter 18: Fiscal Management and Parliamentary Democracy -- Kevin Page
Chapter 19: Science under Siege -- James L. Turk
Chapter 20: Taxes, Austerity, and What Trickles Down -- Alex Himelfarb
Epilogue: Back to the Road Less Traveled -- Ed Finn
About the Contributors
Acknowledgements
Select Bibliography
Endnotes
Index
The contributors:
ED FINN began his 70-year career in journalism in 1944 as a reporter for the Corner Brook daily The Western Star, followed by two years with the Montreal Gazette in the 1950s. While working as a communicator for several unions during the 1960s-1980s, he wrote a column on labour relations for the Toronto Star from 1968 to 1982. He retired in 2014 after serving 20 years as editor of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' monthly magazine, The Monitor.
The contributors to this book come from every corner of Canada: David Suzuki, Maude Barlow, Joyce Nelson, Peter Robinson, Andrew Jackson, Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew, Lynne Fernandez, Linda McQuaig, Colleen Fuller, Kate McInturff, Nora Loreto, Larry Kuehn, Ed Finn, Art Manuel, Duff Conacher, Alex Himelfarb, Kevin Page, James Turk, Trish Hennessy, and Murray Dobbin.
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