We live in increasingly unsettling times. Two world orders are chafing against each other: the rules-based international order, however imperfect, and the emerging strong man, power brokerage order. These approaches are in friction, and we don’t yet know what the outcome will be. Countries are rapidly trying to forge new alliances.
Donald Trump is a disrupter par excellence, but he is not alone in attacking government and institutions, dismissing science, riding roughshod over human rights and embracing a triumphalist winner-take-all approach to politics. However, he is the president of the most powerful country in the world.
In Canada, we face Trump’s baseless retribution in an escalating game of tariff chicken and his threats to annex our country. He muses about a military takeover of Greenland and the Panama Canal. He is abandoning Ukraine and increasingly allying with Putin’s Russia, and we see him severing trade, military and social alliances in place since the Second World War. Will the old system fracture? What would a new system bring?
For 45 years, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has provided analysis on the key issues facing Canadians. Widely respected researchers and communicators anticipate upcoming challenges to not just engage in the debate but to help shape a progressive vision. This research, analysis and policy solutions are needed now more than ever.
How will tariffs differentially impact the Canadian economy and Canadian workers? There is, quite rightly, much attention being paid to the auto sector, with its high value-added, good-paying jobs. Other key sectors—such as steel, aluminum, agriculture, and forestry—face uncertainty. Then there is the impact on spin-off jobs in industry and services.
Likely no one will escape the impact of long-term, high tariffs. Some will lose jobs. All of us will pay higher prices. We all face unsettling insecurity. Those who are most vulnerable in our society will be even harder hit.
A tariff-induced recession throws workers out of jobs, reduces the taxes they would have paid, and erodes our services.
Clearly, we need a beefed-up Employment Insurance (EI) system to buffer workers through this tumult. The newly announced federal work-sharing arrangement in EI is insufficient to address the insecurity that workers are facing. Canadian workers deserve a stronger safety net during economic downturns. The need for EI reform is urgent.
This is also no time to abandon the goal of improving affordability for Canadians. From high rents and house prices, to rising food costs, Canadians have long found their paycheques insufficient for the rising costs they continue to face.
As a wealthy country, we cannot abandon our efforts to shelter, feed, and care for everyone who calls Canada home. We cannot jettison work on human rights, Indigenous reconciliation, international solidarity and environmental sustainability.
Business groups are quick to rush in with solutions—self-serving goals they have long held and now see the opportunity to act. They offer plans for more military investment, building pipelines, deregulation and interprovincial trade (which really is often just about deregulation). These need scrutiny to ensure that business interests are not the only ones at the table and heard by the public. We do need to support Canadian businesses, which will struggle with U.S. tariffs, but not at the expense of policies, programs, services, and social supports that work in the public interest.
What is the best way forward? How do we protect ourselves, our country, our planet? This is the moment when the work of the CCPA is more crucial than ever. This is not to advocate for paralysis and endless debate, but rather for thoughtfulness, acting in the best interests of all Canadians.
Now is the time to reinforce our east-west connections, as was done generations ago, with investments like health care, education, child care, affordable housing, public transit and transport infrastructure, research and development—and vital social supports.
What an opportunity for procurement from Canadian companies. We build some of the best products in the world and now is the opportunity to showcase those products and ensure they are available for Canadians and new purchasers around the world.
In uncertain times like these—fuelled by confusion and insecurity—the CCPA shines a light on the best path forward for the key challenges of the day. Let’s rally together and join in concert with other progressive organizations. We are stronger together. Let’s get to work.
Peggy Nash is executive director of the CCPA.
