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
Opening the Black Box: Nursing Agencies in Canada with Joan Almost
Private nursing agencies are have grown in number and use amid the crises facing the healthcare sector by filling the gaps in chronic understaffing. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions’ new report Opening the black box: Unpacking the use of nursing agencies in Canada reveals just how much this reliance on nursing agencies has cost. Dr. Joan Almost, Professor of Nursing at Queen’s University and author of the CFNU report spoke with the Perspectives Journal Podcast about how, in the end, private nursing agencies were at most a band-aid solution to a systemic issue.
The CFNU report offers clear recommendations to help mitigate this growing cost, and encroaching privatization, in the healthcare sector. For instance, to help address staffing irregularities, especially in rural and remote communities, provincial governments could create public nursing agencies that help to fill in these faps, instead of relying on private nursing agencies. Professor Almost points to Manitoba and British Columbia, where provincial governments have created similar agencies to ease off their reliance on private nursing agencies. These private agencies have also lacked transparency, leading to Professor Almost’s challenges in compiling the data for this report. Ensuring immediate oversight and regulation of these agencies will be critical to prevent them from ballooning costs on our public health care systems.
Professor Almost offers a guide to fixing the nursing problem on this episode of the Perspectives Journal Podcast.
Notes:
- REPORT – Opening the black box: Unpacking the use of nursing agencies in Canada, by Dr. Joan Almost, Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, September 2024.
- REPORT – Nursing Retention Toolkit: Improving the Working Lives of Nurses in Canada Health Canada, March 2024.
- “Public system spent at least $1.5-billion on private nurses last year, study finds” by Kelly Grant, The Globe and Mail, 23 September 2024.
- NOVA SCOTIA – “Province, union working toward travel nurse program” by Michael Gorman, CBC, 1 October 2024.
