In the five years that I’ve lived in Toronto, many of my phone conversations have started the same way: “Are you calling me from Saskatchewan?” the person on the other end will ask after seeing my caller ID. No, I tell them, I kept my Saskatchewan number because I can’t get a phone plan anywhere […] More »

The cancellation of Ontario’s basic income project not only violates our obligation as a society to ensure economic security for all. It also breaches the ethical obligations we have to those participating in research, and underscores the need for a multi-faceted research methodology in designing better income security programs. The new Conservative government in Ontario […] More »

The National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames need a new stadium. At least their owners say they do. The 35-year-old Scotiabank Saddledome is perfectly functional, but the team owners’ dream project was CalgaryNEXT, a new Bow-riverside complex home to the Flames and the Canadian Football League’s Stampeders that may also pull in more concert revenue. The […] More »

In a capitalist free-market system, profit over everything seems to be the battle cry of big business and corporate strategy. However, those looking to make a positive difference and give back to the community have created a market for themselves through an innovative model of social entrepreneurship. Going into business now has a friendlier face, […] More »

Last summer, freelance journalist Katie Jensen shared her 2016 net income with the Twittersphere. “If we knew exactly how much Canadian freelancers, columnists, copywriters, broadcasters, and journalists made,” she wrote, “how revelatory would that be?” This question resonates with the precariously employed, who don’t benefit from certain protections linked to full-time, permanent jobs. Many have […] More »

Nova Scotians’ bigotry is softer and quieter than its white supremacist cousins in headline-grabbing places like Charlottesville, Virginia—but it’s no less devastating. Late last year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released its 2017 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Atlantic Canada’s most populated province. In a single table the CCPA manages […] More »

In the 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland, Alice was trying to find a party when she fell down the rabbit hole. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that this has become the favourite cliché for people struggling to explain what it’s like to enter the disorienting world of Bitcoin. We’ve all heard stories about the mad crypto-party, […] More »

“You can mine for gold, but you can sell pickaxes.” -Anonymous One of the biggest fortunes made in the Californian gold rush of the nineteenth century was that of Levi Strauss, who made his money selling everything from tents and buckets to the denim pants that still bear his name. He got paid whether his […] More »

Trudeau’s majority win in 2015 promised many things, among them a strong economy and a happy middle class. Early on he revealed the party’s plans to run a “modest short-term” deficit of no more than $10 billion a year to achieve this, and hit the ground running with campaign promises of better infrastructure, innovation spending, […] More »

Four strangers are congregating by my doorway. I cautiously step outside and the most well-dressed of them extends his hand and makes introductions. He’s the real-estate agent and the others are his team. I say hello then retreat back inside, listening to the muffled voices outside my window. I live in the garden suite—an elegant synonym for […] More »

For our special 50th anniversary issue, Canada’s brightest, boldest, and most rebellious thinkers, doers, and creators share their best big ideas. Through ideas macro and micro, radical and everyday, we present 50 essays, think pieces, and calls to action. Picture: plans for sustainable food systems, radical legislation, revolutionary health care, a greener planet, Indigenous self-government, […] More »