The pandemic of 2020-21 can be analysed as an unpredictable natural event, akin to a hurricane or an earthquake, an accident of global dimensions for which humanity was unprepared. Yet, as Dr. Richard Horton of The Lancet suggests, a more appropriate term might be “syndemic,” combining three elements: “the virus, the chronic conditions that make people more … Continue reading What is Syndemic?

Nancy Janovicek, University of Calgary Feminists argue that COVID economic recovery plans may “turn back the clock” on the gains that women have made in the workplace by ten or twenty years.[1] Dubbing the pandemic downturn the “she-cession,” feminist economists are critical of the focus on infrastructure-based economic recovery plans because they ignore workplaces dominated … Continue reading “Women Losers in a False Economy”: Feminist Resistance to Neoliberalism in Alberta

Doug Nesbitt The only good thing in the NinetiesAre the things that used to beBefore Mulroney’s LoonieFree trade and the GST A 59-year-old Stompin Tom Connors dropped these bars in October 1995 with Long Gone To The Yukon, an album that climbed to #5 on the Canadian country charts.[1] Uncharacteristically political for Connors, “How Do … Continue reading Will you Break the Law Somehow?: Civil Disobedience and Ontario’s Common Sense Revolution

Maxime Dagenais It’s the time of year again! The moment when we, once again, reveal the Wilson Book Prize and Viv Nelles Essay Prize finalists. And like I say each year, like a broken record: “this year’s competition is as strong as ever.” (Max, 2017-20) Historians in Canada and abroad are producing some incredible and … Continue reading 2020 Wilson Prize Finalists!

Mack Penner, McMaster University  Questions about the relationship between the local and the global are among the most enduring issues in ongoing debates about neoliberalism. For the late historian and theorist Moishe Postone, who emphasizes the global, it is possible to view the history of the twentieth century in terms of the “rise and decline … Continue reading Neoliberal Ideas and Settler Colonialism

Steacy Easton, York University Thinking about neoliberalism and place, or the recent economic system and place, in relationship to resource extraction, the more I am convinced that our current economy is a kind of shangri la. In a neoliberal context, extractive industry reduces a place to its resources: the life-span of a place is tied directly … Continue reading Neoliberalism and the Culture of Extractive Industry

Nicholas Fast, University of Toronto Across Canada and the United States during the spring of 2020, thousands of workers in meat-processing plants contracted COVID-19 through workplace spread. The most notable case in Canada was that of High River, Alberta, where almost half of the 2000 workers contracted the virus and spread it within the surrounding … Continue reading Neoliberalism, Packinghouses, and COVID-19

Beyond Borders will publish a series of articles on the topic of Neoliberalism and Canada, guest edited by Mack Penner and Nick Fast. Today’s article is the second of their series! Stay tuned for others! Roberta Lexier, Mount Royal University In 1956, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) replaced its founding document – The Regina Manifesto – with … Continue reading Abdication of Opposition: The CCF/NDP and the Rise of Neoliberalism in Canada

Beyond Borders will publish a series of articles on the topic of Neoliberalism and Canada, guest edited by Mack Penner and Nick Fast. Today's article is the first of their series! Stay tuned for others! Will Langford, University of Alberta When a transnational group of economists, businessmen, and civil servants formed the Mont Pelerin Society … Continue reading The Early History of Neoliberalism in Canada during World War II