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
Power for the Public with Edgardo Sepulveda
Earlier this fall, The Alberta Federation of Labour released a new report entitled Power in the Public Interest: Re-regulation and increased public ownership in Alberta’s electricity sector. A headline from a press release of the report reads: “Albertans have overpaid $24 billion for electricity since 2001.” This is long before the interruptions and constraints caused by more recent inflation or long before any carbon taxes were implemented, but the report points to the province’s deregulated power generation as the culprit behind this price gouging.
This has become a huge problem in the province as Albertans, despite living in a so-called energy powerhouse, find their household affordability taking a major hit while the electricity grid has become prone to reliability issues and failure, especially during cold snaps. Not to mention the other infrastructure issues that plague Alberta’s cities, but the report details how, despite consuming 2% of all electricity demand between the interconnected grids of Canada and the United States, the province accounts for 35% of emergency alerts when blackouts are imminent or in progress.
Unique to Alberta, and the cause pointed to behind the lack of grid security, is deregulation and privatization have led to high costs and poor service. Where have we heard that one before?
Edgardo Sepulveda, a regulatory economist and consultant, is the author of this report from the AFL, spoke on the Perspectives Journal Podcast about what it will take to bring power back into the public interest in Alberta.
Notes:
- Power in the Public Interest Re-regulation and increased public ownership in Alberta’s electricity sector, Alberta Federation of Labour, by Edgardo Sepulveda, October 2024.
- Profits, Inflation and Survival in an Age of Emergencies: Why We Need a New Paradigm, 2024 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture, by Isabella Weber, May 2024.
