Explore every episode of the podcast Alberta Advantage Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenney vs Jeremy Appel | 24 Sep 2024 | 00:58:41 | |
In this live recording, Jeremy tells us how Kenney has shaped Alberta politics, and expounds on his ideological commitments, his flair for conspiracy and his effective use of political stunts. We also learn of Kenney's taste in music and get Jeremy's response to the toughest question he's been asked since the book came out. | |||
| Sous les pavés: Student radicalism from the '60s to today | 13 May 2024 | 01:25:27 | |
Gaza solidarity encampments on university campuses in the U.S. and Canada are experiencing violent police crackdowns. How do the student movements of the past inform what's going on now? Team Advantage digs into the history of student radicalism and speaks to encampment supporters about their experiences with police. | |||
| Recession Ahead? w/ Jim Stanford | 30 Mar 2023 | 00:45:36 | |
Support this podcast! Watch our livestream! Sign up for our newsletter! The Bank of Canada is explicitly trying to increase unemployment by raising the cost of borrowing money. Is excessive employment the cause of inflation, and if not, what are the consequences of this policy likely to be? Economist Jim Stanford joins Team Advantage to talk about profiteering, the housing market, and the potential for a recession within the next year. Follow Jim Stanford on twitter @JimboStanford, and check out Economics for Everyone at economicsforeveryone.ca. | |||
| Kenney Forgot Who Defeated the Nazis | 09 Mar 2020 | 01:31:30 | |
Nazis are bad! The Communists who defeated them are good! Somehow, this is massively confusing to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney! Joined by special guest Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio, Team Advantage examines Jason Kenney's confused sense of history. Why is he such a big fan of the debunked Black Book of Communism? Are Nazism and Communism the same, as Jason Kenney proposes? Who (and what social forces) benefit from this reading of history? | |||
| Access Television: Media for the People | 27 Feb 2020 | 00:44:49 | |
Once upon a time, Alberta's cable channels and airwaves were considered a public good, worthy of a non-commercial educational broadcaster: Access Television. Team Advantage explores the history, ambitions, and legacy of this effort to build public, commercial-free and education-oriented programming, as well as the role of privatization in its eventual demise. | |||
| Health Services Review Pitches Privatization, Attacks Workers | 18 Feb 2020 | 00:44:56 | |
After cutting healthcare expenditures by 17% over four years, Jason Kenney's UCP government spent $2 million for a review of Alberta Health Services. The review found very little in terms of major cost savings. The review's recommendations, however, propose an attack on the unionized workers that perform vital duties within Alberta's health care system, eroding pay, working conditions, and union presence at AHS sites. It also provides a justification for increased privatization of the workforce, AHS facilities, and surgeries. Alison McIntosh, research manager at the Parkland Institute, joins Team Advantage to discuss the implications of the review. Follow Alison on Twitter @McIn_Ali, and follow the Parkland Institute @ParklandInst.
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| "Balance" in Climate Change, Cursive Writing: Alberta's Curriculum Review | 12 Feb 2020 | 00:43:58 | |
Scrapping the previous NDP government's comprehensive curriculum review, Jason Kenney pledged to "get politics out of the classroom." The newly-formed Curriculum Advisory Panel, which does not include anyone who has taught in a classroom for the last 20 years, came up with some suggestions: provide "balance" when teaching lessons about climate change, and teach cursive writing. Barbara Silva, communications director of Support Our Students, joins Team Advantage to talk about the state of the curriculum rewrite, and public education more broadly, in Alberta. Check out Support Our Students at supportourstudents.ca. | |||
| Public Ownership in Canada: Linda McQuaig | 06 Feb 2020 | 00:53:09 | |
Nowadays, a "public enterprise" means the government bought a leaky pipeline— but public enterprises have a long and successful history in Canada, providing services and public goods that private actors in the market economy could never muster. Journalist and author Linda McQuaig joins Team Advantage to discuss her latest book, The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada's Public Wealth. Discover how the Trudeau Liberals' Infrastructure Bank is a giant handout to BlackRock! Unearth the history of Canadian National, Canada's public railway, and its role in shaping radio broadcasts and the CBC! Gasp in shock as you learn that a wildly popular public Postal Office Savings Bank existed in Canada until 1968, when Canada's big private banks lobbied to undermine it! | |||
| MINI-EP: Managing Universities to Death: Cuts and "Performance Measures" | 01 Feb 2020 | 00:30:32 | |
Follow Marc on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drmarcspooner/ | |||
| MINI-EP: Imperial Oil Ignored Its Own Climate Research | 27 Jan 2020 | 00:19:32 | |
Support this podcast Follow Murtaza Hussain's work: twitter.com/MazMHussain and theintercept.com. | |||
| NEWSFLASH: Tax Strike! Calls for Resistance as Kenney Lets Oil & Gas off the Hook | 22 Jan 2020 | 00:08:06 | |
January 22, 2020: Former MLA and Alberta Liberal Party leader Dr. David Swann calls for a citizen tax strike as Alberta's oil & gas producers owe $173 million to rural municipalities. Regan Boychuk of the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project proposes taking on industry to clean up industry's unfunded environmental liabilities. | |||
| MINI-EP: Trans Mountain's Ballooning Costs | 21 Jan 2020 | 00:27:33 | |
Remember when the Trudeau government purchased that leaky 66-year-old Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan? Turns out that Trans Mountain is locking in some extraordinary costs to the public at the same time that it's providing a massive discount to major oilsands producers. Economist Robyn Allan joins Team Advantage to explain how bad of a deal the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion really is. Check out Robyn's work at robynallan.com, her novel "When They Came For The Beach" at novel.robynallan.com, and follow her on Twitter @robynallan. | |||
| The 1999-2000 Herald Strike, 20 Years Later | 13 Jan 2020 | 01:06:21 | |
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'll now recognize as right-wing hacks, a literal press baron, police intimidation and brutality, private security goons, and much much more. | |||
| TORIES: Calgary Laundry Workers vs Ralph Klein | 28 Feb 2023 | 01:19:18 | |
Building a Community Movement for Better Transit feat. James Wilt: Saturday, March 18th | University of Alberta. RSVP: michaeljanz.ca/transitcamp2023 A few short years into Alberta PC Premier Ralph Klein’s deficit-slashing austerity regime, Calgary’s hospital laundry workers were given devastating news: they were going to be fired. Having been pushed to the brink, they took to the streets the next day on a wildcat strike. Soon, the city would be galvanized by the strike, with sympathy strikes soon forcing Klein’s government to cancel health spending cuts and talk of a general strike in the air.
Our episode ends with an excerpt from Yvette Lynch, laundry worker and CUPE 8 member.
Listen to our previous episode on TORIES: Peter Lougheed, and check out our two-part series on why Ralph Klein sucked: Part 1, Part 2.
Further Reading: Foster, Jason. “Revolution, Retrenchment, and the New Normal: The 1990s and Beyond.” In Working People in Alberta: A History, edited by Alvin Finkel, 205–241. Edmonton: AU Press, 2012. Reshef, Yonaton, and Sandra Rastin. Unions in the Time of Revolution: Government Restructuring in Alberta and Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. Taylor, Jeff. “Labour in the Klein Revolution.” In The Trojan Horse: Alberta and the Future of Canada, edited by Gordon Laxer and Trevor Harrison, 301–313. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1995. | |||
| The $30M Ad They Don't Want You to See: War Room Holiday Special | 07 Jan 2020 | 00:48:11 | |
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 in real time to this first attempt at energy-industry propaganda, paid for with public funds. The video, now listed as private, used to be available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2_AsaHmwKA As of this episode's release, no videos are listed on the CEC's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC71zRyNhgCDKNg9NROwFaXg | |||
| MINI-EP: Andray Domise on Opposing Capitalism | 02 Jan 2020 | 00:42:09 | |
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 authors like Marx and Engels? Read Andray's piece here: https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-left-must-stand-against-capitalism-now/ Read Andray's work here: https://www.macleans.ca/author/andray-domise/ Follow Andray on twitter @andraydomise. | |||
| Chicago Principles: Free Speech or Coddling Campus Conservatives? | 22 Dec 2019 | 00:59:21 | |
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 big of a deal? | |||
| MINI-EP: Surgery Privatization: Public Risk, Private Profit | 17 Dec 2019 | 00:19:58 | |
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 health care system? Read Ricardo's blog post here: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/fact_checking_jason_kenney_s_wait_list_strategy Follow Ricardo at @RicAcuna, and follow the Parkland Institute's work at parklandinstitute.ca and @ParklandInst. | |||
| Kenney's Great Albertan Pension Robbery | 10 Dec 2019 | 00:47:24 | |
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? | |||
| MINI-EP: Hellberta Update & Strategy Session | 24 Nov 2019 | 00:46:13 | |
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). | |||
| Oil Propaganda Breakdown: Enough Is Enough | 13 Nov 2019 | 00:57:57 | |
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 | |||
| Austerity, Again: Kenney's Budget | 04 Nov 2019 | 00:57:43 | |
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? | |||
| Ugly Reality: Unions under Alberta's NDP | 20 Oct 2019 | 00:33:04 | |
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 | |||
| Chasing the Centre: The Death of the Median Voter | 12 Oct 2019 | 00:44:03 | |
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 | |||
| Declaring Sovereignty | 30 Jan 2023 | 00:49:35 | |
Alberta, under the incredible leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, has declared sovereignty — or rather, proclaimed itself "sovereign within a united Canada," whatever that means. What even is sovereignty? How might it to relate to Indigenous sovereignty? Who even wants this? | |||
| MINI-EP: Alberta's Minimum Wage Freeze | 05 Oct 2019 | 00:19:37 | |
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 | |||
| MINI-EP: Trudeau Formula with Martin Lukacs | 02 Oct 2019 | 00:44:11 | |
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 | |||
| Green New Deals! | 21 Sep 2019 | 00:52:53 | |
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. | |||
| MINI-EP: Debt Panic? Alberta's Revenue Problem | 14 Sep 2019 | 00:28:47 | |
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 | |||
| Common Front: Québec's 1972 General Strike | 30 Aug 2019 | 00:57:37 | |
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. We examine the history of uneven development, the politics of anticolonial struggle, the radicalisation of labour groups, the state repression brought on by the 1970 October Crisis, the death of Michèle Gauthier, and the events of 1971-72. Follow Brendan on Twitter @NeeedlesEye. Watch "24 heures ou plus" from the NFB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPQZAHiZtNw | |||
| MINI-EP: Extractive Populism: Wrapping Fossil Fuels in the Canadian Flag | 21 Aug 2019 | 00:35:10 | |
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 unpacks the loaded concepts the fossil fuel industry has mobilized to garner political support and legitimacy. Read Shane Gunster's piece here: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/extractive-populism-and-future-canada | |||
| The Wrong Advantage: Destroying Justin Trudeau With Facts and Logic | 06 Aug 2019 | 01:12:50 | |
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 status quo! Support Srsly Wrong at patreon.com/srslywrong and follow them on twitter at @srslywrong. And of course, please support the Alberta Advantage at patreon.com/albertaadvantage and follow us on twitter at @BertaAdvantage! | |||
| MINI-EP: Killers, Queers, and the Birth of Canadian Socialism: 1st Legion of Utopia | 23 Jul 2019 | 00:30:05 | |
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 Federation in the frontier city of Calgary. Buy 1st Legion of Utopia here: https://renegadeartsentertainment.com/product/1st-legion-of-utopia/ and follow Find them on twitter: @JamesDavidge @illustratednick | |||
| The Winnipeg Declaration of Principles of the CCF (1956) | 17 Jul 2019 | 00:45:46 | |
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. | |||
| MINI-EP: Fossil-Power Top 50 | 09 Jul 2019 | 00:29:01 | |
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.ca/top50 | |||
| Danielle Smith Thought | 03 Oct 2022 | 01:26:21 | |
You see, the woke establishment wants to control what media Albertans see, what vaccines we take, the resources we develop — and even what we are allowed to grow and eat. Independent journalist Jeremy Appel joins Team Advantage to explore Danielle Smith Thought. Follow Jeremy @JeremyAppel1025 and subscribe to his newsletter, The Orchard, at theorchard.substack.com. Support this podcast! Watch our livestream! Sign up for our newsletter! | |||
| Does Social Democracy Have a Future? A Five-Year Plan for Alberta's NDP | 22 Jun 2019 | 00:55:07 | |
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. | |||
| (Tax) Haven Is a Place on Earth | 09 Jun 2019 | 00:48:57 | |
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's corporate tax breaks, the myth of job creation, and more. Follow Toby Sanger on Twitter @toby_sanger and visit taxfairness.ca for more! | |||
| Walmart, but Good: Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski | 01 Jun 2019 | 00:53:50 | |
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, the need to democratize (and not just nationalize!) the corporate planning apparatus, and more. Find the authors on Twitter: @leigh_phillips and @michalrozworski | |||
| General Strike! Winnipeg 1919-2019 | 17 May 2019 | 01:04:45 | |
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 thanks to the conference organizers and volunteers, and thanks to everyone we met in Winnipeg for the warm welcome! | |||
| MINI-EP: Rick Bell, Calgary's Best Journalist | 11 May 2019 | 00:32:11 | |
Rick Bell. He's Calgary's Best Journalist. His paragraphs? They're tiny. His opinions? They're terrible. Listen, dear reader, and learn. | |||
| BONUS: Unpacking the News: Welcome to Hellberta: The Kenney era begins | 27 Apr 2019 | 00:34:43 | |
BONUS MATERIAL: Enjoy this episode of Unpacking the News from April 17, 2019 featuring Alberta Advantage contributor and Sports Are Gay co-host Elaine Pauls joining Andre Goulet to explore the aftermath of the 2019 election. In a grim morning-after conversation, Alberta Advantage contributor and Sports Are Gay co-host Elaine Pauls joins host Andre Goulet from Calgary to explore the aftermath of just what the hell happened in the 2019 Alberta provincial election. Plus: the province's new binary politics, anthropomorphic cat young adult novels are self-care in a UCP hellworld + a deep dive into ‘At Home With Premier Kenney’, a spooky election night Choose Your Own Adventure mystery. And: Toronto gets ready to host a titanic collision of egos and intellect at the already-legendary Jordan Peterson vs. Slavov Zizek debate happening Friday, April 19th at the Sony Center for the Performing Arts. Is Canadian society ready for this clash of titans? Subscribe to Unpacking the News: https://www.spreaker.com/show/unpacking-the-news-by-ricochet-media Subscribe to Sports are Gay: https://player.fm/series/sports-are-gay | |||
| Predictably: Welcome to Hellberta | 19 Apr 2019 | 00:52:47 | |
Predictably, the Alberta NDP's focus-grouped and poll-driven strategy to get re-elected failed, despite Jason Kenney's campaign having multiple run-ins with xenophobia and white nationalism. Who could've foreseen after the 2016 Clinton-Trump contest that people would vote for magic nostalgic "make the economy better" beans, even if the leader in question is an asshole? Surely in Alberta, where Ralph Klein was Premier for 14 years, people at the ballot box ask themselves "hrmm I wonder who is more fit to be Premier?" | |||
| BONUS: Unpacking the News: Jason Kenney's twisted political legacy | 15 Apr 2019 | 00:36:17 | |
BONUS CONTENT! Repost of Ricochet Media's "Unpacking the News" with Andre Goulet, featuring Team Advantage member Stephen. In the lead up to Alberta's April 16th election, Stephen Magusiak of pressprogress.ca and The Alberta Advantage podcast joins host Andre Goulet to explore (likely future Premier) Jason Kenney’s twisted past as a far-right campus activist in the United States. Plus: cataloguing the extremist political views of many of Kenney's United Conservative Party candidates and assessing the successes and failures of the last 4 years of Alberta NDP government under Premier Rachel Notley. This conversation was recorded on April 5th, 2019. | |||
| ANDP Platform Review: It's a Document You Can Read, I Guess | 11 Apr 2019 | 00:39:52 | |
Alberta's New Democrats have some legitimate victories: minimum wage increases, modernization of labour rights, and their protections of Gay-Straight Alliances are commendable. But fiscally they've accepted too many conservative frames, which left them without the capacity to pursue truly transformative policies like a green jobs guarantee or more aggressive decarbonization programs. Is this new platform what will stem the tide of alt-right fascism and usher in the fair and equitable future we all yearn for? Join Team Advantage as they consider Notley's 2019 platform and all of its thrills and delights. | |||
| UCP Platform Review: It Sucks Ass | 08 Apr 2019 | 00:44:42 | |
Jason Kenney's United Conservative Party released a 114-page platform detailing how they would like to go to war with Albertans. "Job creation" programs that just hand giant tax breaks to corporations! "Cutting red tape" by rolling back labour regulations! Repealing overtime pay entirely! Suing higher orders of government for fun! Conspiracy theories about foreign interests land-locking our oil! Outing gay kids in schools to their parents! | |||
| The Free Trade Debate: Then and Now | 27 Jun 2022 | 01:02:39 | |
In the 1980s and 1990s, free trade and economic integration were intensely debated topics and the subject of debate in national elections, and generally opposed by the political left. Most recently, right-populist political formations — like Trump and Brexit — have resurfaced the issue of free trade, critiquing it for their own purposes. Why is it that nobody except the political right wants to talk about free trade anymore, especially when our countries have strategic decisions on the horizon— like resourcing pandemic responses and mitigating climate change? | |||
| MINI-EP: Danielle Smith Is Mainstreaming White Supremacy | 04 Apr 2019 | 00:43:45 | |
Danielle Smith interviewed disgraced former UCP candidate Caylan Ford on March 29, 2019. Caylan Ford withdrew her candidacy on March 20, 2019 after messages she authored were released which revealed that Ford thought "white supremacist terrorists" are treated unfairly, and that she is "saddened by the demographic replacement of white peoples in their homelands" and "it's clear that it will not be a peaceful transition." The messages were authored two days after the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally. Bashir Mohamed and Avnish Nanda join Team Advantage to discuss Danielle Smith's interview and more generally the mainstreaming of white supremacist talking points in popular discourse. View Danielle Smith's interview with Caylan Ford here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QQsTTXrHSc Urge Corus and Global News to stop platforming and mainstreaming white supremacy: https://www.progressalberta.ca/danielle_smith Follow Bashir and Avnish on twitter @BashirMohamed and @avnishnanda. | |||
| Notley vs Notley | 31 Mar 2019 | 00:50:24 | |
Fun fact: Grant Notley, Rachel Notley's father, led Alberta's New Democrats from 1968 until 1984. Surely he was inspired by the radical politics of his time and serves as a useful contrast to today's social democrats who claim that "Pharmacare doesn't grow on trees... ?" Team Advantage compares and contrasts the members of Alberta's only social-democratic dynasty, and gives careful consideration to their theory of social and political change. | |||
| MINI-EP: Corbella on Caylan Ford, Who Said White Supremacist Things | 25 Mar 2019 | 00:29:52 | |
Jason Kenney's star UCP candidate, Caylan Ford, recently resigned over white supremacist comments. But did you know that the Calgary Herald's star columnist, Licia Corbella, wrote a glowing puff piece on Caylan Ford? Join Team Advantage as they read through Corbella's insightful profile. For legal reasons, please consider this entire episode parody. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/corbella-from-human-rights-to-film-to-politics-caylan-ford-is-a-force-of-nature | |||