Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy
The Perspectives Journal Podcast complements the journal and opinions content of Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy, to bring out left-wing ideas and strategy in a new and ever-evolving format. The podcast features interviews with policy experts, to dig deeper into the progressive angles of the issues affecting working-class, ordinary Canadians.
Hosted by editor-in-chief, Clement Nocos, the Perspectives Journal Podcast aims to bring forward timely analysis on issues from the multiple crises of the economy, cost-of-living and the environment, to the labour movement, as well as the state of Canadian democracy. The wide reaching breadth of this show aims to help inform policymakers and the public about approaches to today’s pressing problems that are rooted in Ed Broadbent’s Principles for Canadian Social Democracy.
Perspectives Journal also produces and features shows hosted by the Broadbent Institute’s friends and affiliates, providing a progressive platform for limited and irregular conversations that are still necessary to enliven Canada’s political discourse. The Perspectives Journal Podcast is a proud members of the Harbinger Media Network, Canada’s progressive podcast community.
Activists Make History
Activists Make History with Peggy Nash is a new podcast series from Perspectives Journal that finds the political underdogs and asks how they got started, against the odds, to fight for progressive change. Policymakers, activists and experts from underrepresented communities and backgrounds, that are typically pushed to the margins of Canadian political life, are front and centre in conversation with Peggy Nash, who has been a union activist, a feminist advocate, and a Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons for nearly a decade.
Reflecting on these experiences as a political outsider, and in conversation with other like-minded outsiders that take our struggles into the halls of power, Activists Make History aims to show how we can win a better world through elected office. Activists Make History is only made possible by the generous contribution of Unifor.
Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy
Corporate Tax Breaks, Housing Heartbreaks with Silas Xuereb
Corporate tax breaks and loopholes in Canada have contributed heavily to the affordability crisis argues Silas Xuereb, researcher at Canadian for Tax Fairness, PhD candidate at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of a new report entitled, How tax breaks are worsening Canada's housing affordability crisis. Outside of calls to build housing supply, Xuereb draws attention to a lesser discussed issue within the broader debates in Canadian housing: financialization. Without tackling financialization, housing may very well remain unaffordable despite changing supply and/or demand.
Financialization refers to the process by which a commodity, like housing, becomes a financial tool for investment rather than remaining as social or human good. Xuereb points to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) as the main driver of this transformative shift in the real estate market. What makes REITs so popular and effective is the tax system in Canada, which gives real estate investors tax breaks on housing investments as an apparent incentive to increase supply. However, despite a 700 percent increase in real corporate capital gains since 2002, these entities have pocketed most of the profits while prices go up and supply remains insufficient.
Closing the tax loophole is an important step in fighting rising costs, as a part of a comprehensive policy set that includes investment in non-market housing and caps on single-entity ownership of multiple dwellings.
Listen to our interview with Silas Xuereb on how the current Canadian tax system favours corporate landlords and what we need to do to fix financialization driving the housing crisis.
Notes:
- REPORT - How tax breaks are worsening Canada’s housing affordability crisis, by Silas Xuereb, Canadians for Tax Fairness, September 2024.
- REPORT - The Financialization of Housing in Canada, by Martine Auguste, Canadian Human Rights Commission, June 2022.
- "Addressing the Rise of Investor Ownership of Housing, Part 1: Assessing the Scale and Impacts across Canada" by Jeremy Withers, Perspectives Journal no. 1, April 2024.
- REPORT - Dreams and Realities on the Home Front: Canadians’ Call for Government Action on Housing Affordability, Broadbent Institute & Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, March 2024.
- Alternative Federal Budget 2025, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, September 17, 2024.
