Leadership 2026 Candidate Profile - Rob Ashton

With voting set to begin tomorrow in the federal NDP’s leadership campaign, I’ll take the opportunity to offer candidate profiles - focusing on what we knew at the start, what we’ve learned over the course of the campaign, and what’s worth keeping an eye on in their skills and policy proposals. 

What We Knew

At the beginning of the campaign, Rob Ashton was the political neophyte in the race. That meant we had relatively little to go on in terms of his personality, plans and prospects - other than the general impression that he had ample support from the labour movement.

The sense of the unknown them built further when Ashton declined to offer policy proposals, stating instead that he’d develop those in talking to people over the course of the campaign. But he did start off strongly on the organizational front, getting successful events organized from the early stages of the race.

What We’ve Learned

If any candidate’s position has improved meaningfully over the course of the campaign, it’s Ashton’s. He’s managed to win coverage delivering an oppositional message against Avi Lewis’ front-running campaign, elevating him above the other lesser-known candidates to the point of having a plausible path to benefit from an effective candidate alliance with Heather McPherson.

Yet if Ashton’s organization has built up over the course of the campaign, his personal appeal hasn’t done the same. He’s still a distinctly less effective communicator than the top tier of candidates, as a middling speaker in English and a write-off in French. And while he’s gone further than I would have expected in winning labour support, he hasn’t moved meaningfully past its boundaries.

What He’s Proposing

For the extra time Ashton took in presenting his policies, he hasn’t offered much that doesn’t echo other candidates. Perhaps the most distinctive proposal he’s put forward is to tie an explicit tax surcharge to pay disparities between the CEO and median worker of a single company - but that looks to be a relatively minor piece of puzzle in addressing inequality which largely arises out of disparities both between organizations, and between types of income and wealth. 

What to Watch For

At this point, the best guess for Ashton’s result is to finish a solid third, with the ability to direct much of his support to McPherson to put her over the top. An extreme best-case outcome for Ashton would be to have those standings reversed to allow him to win as the leading alternative to Lewis, while a drop to fourth or lower would be a disappointment.

But perhaps more important will be his choices after the campaign is over. 

Ideally Ashton and his labour movement supporters will want to stay involved in building the party no matter who wins, including by having him take a prominent role going forward. But his relatively negative messages again Lewis raise the risk he’d choose to do so if the leadership campaign doesn’t turn out as he hopes - and that could only further attenuate the connections between the NDP and its labour base.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Samantha Hancox-Li writes about the need for the U.S.' citizenry to retake power from a militarized surveillance state through nonviolent organized resistance. And Philip Bump points out how Minnesota has already provided a model for other communities to follow. 

- Oren Cass discusses the need to treat the financial sector as a grift rather than a source of investment or productivity. And Cory Doctorow calls out stock buybacks and other swindles that are being used to transfer wealth from the working class to the corrupt few. 

- Meanwhile, Isaac Phan Nay reports on Tim Li's recognition that even full-time workers are facing an inability to pay for food and other necessities as wages fall behind inflation. 

- Ajit Niranjan reports on a new study showing that increasingly dangerous and ecologically harmful pesticides are being used in far too many countries (including the U.S.). And Dylan Baddour and Peter Aldhous report on Texas' massive-scale venting of pollutants during a bout of winter weather as regulators give gas power plants free rein to dump their waste in the air. 

-  Finally, Don Newman weighs in on how Danielle Smith is plying with fire by stoking separatism, while Andrew Coyne notes that the portions of the separatist group actively seeking a Trump takeover are veering into treasonous territory. And Emmett Macfarlane warns Mark Carney against indulging Smith's attempt to take provincial control over federal judicial appointments (among other incursions into federal jurisdiction). 

Monday Morning Links

Assorted content to start your week.

- John Vaillant discusses how California's wildfires are just the most prominent recent example of how we're getting burned by relying on fossil fuels, while Francine Prose writes that what's happening in Los Angeles now is what people everywhere can expect as our climate breaks down. Elad Nehorai writes that oil companies and their leaders bear direct responsibility for people dying or losing their homes, while Tzeporah Berman calls out fossil fuel promoters as arsonists. And David Sirota discusses what we can do to change a bleak-looking outcome to our ongoing disaster movie. But it should go without saying that minimizing the danger and telling people nothing should change isn't the way to improve the situation - making this just one more area where Keir Starmer's Labour government is making matters worse. 

- The Guardian points out how Donald Trump's denial and division have also been used to avoid halting the damage. Jonathan Katz identifies the attack on climate action as one of the most devastating elements of the alt-right's war on social trust. Anne Applebaum discusses how authoritarians and anti-science cranks have made common cause against evidence-based policy. And Emily Bell writes about the urgency of fighting back on the side of facts and truth, while Rex Huppke calls for a war on stupidity and shamelessness to frame the actions of Trump's new regime in particular.

 - Joan Donovan writes that Meta's decision to institutionalize bigotry merely reflects its general preference for unaccountable oligarchy, while David Adam weighs in on the effectiveness of fact-checking where selfish tycoons aren't determined to squelch it. And Nick Robins-Early calls out Elon Musk's interference in Canadian politics. 

- Amy Maxmen discusses how the U.S. has lost control of the avian flu which is now becoming another source of imminent risk, while Katherine Wu notes that it should be an embarrassment that it wasn't contained nearly a year ago. And Hiroko Tabuchi reports on new research showing that forever chemicals are ending up in tap water through treated sewage.

- Roge Karma writes about two new studies documenting the Walmart effect in which the construction of a store systematically results in lower wages and higher unemployment in a community. 

- Finally, Dan Gardner takes a look at the history of the U.S.' attempts to take over Canada. And Jim Stanford examines (PDF) the actual flows of wealth between the two - showing that the U.S. is already being subsidized by favourable access to resources, markets and capital. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Andrew Freedman examines how the summer of 2024 is shaping up to be the hottest on record. And Jessica Corbett discusses the strong public support for holding the architects of the climate breakdown criminally accountable for the resulting damage. 

- Mike De Souza reports on the Libs' choice to shovel public money to McKinsey and Company to consult on "clean tech" while it was actively being paid to lobby on behalf of fossil fuel interests. And Drew Anderson notes that Alberta's so-called market in electricity includes massive public handouts to fossil gas plants (along with government policies which have shut down renewable energy development). 

- Meanwhile, Toula Drimonis discusses how Montreal has seen its downtown rejuvenated by the choice to prioritize people over vehicles. 

- Max Fawcett writes that Danielle Smith's war on Alberta is only getting started. Jen St. Denis notes that BC Conservatives are lashing out at any media outlets who dare to point out the myriad of close connections between their leadership and Russian-funded disinformation campaigns. And Stephen Maher warns that we're headed toward the meanest election in Canadian history. 

- Finally, Sarah Anderson discusses how the U.S.' largest low-wage employers have paid out massive shareholder benefits instead of allowing employees to share in the product of their work. And Cory Doctorow points out that stock-based compensation creates a particularly ugly incentive for CEO to prioritize the former over the latter. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Jess Thomson points out a new NASA video showing the movement of carbon pollution in our atmosphere, while Oliver Milman reports on new research showing that methane emissions are rising at the fastest rate in decades. Peter Prebble calls out the Moe government's insistence on fighting any action to combat the climate crisis. And Amy Westervelt et al. weigh in on the fossil fuel sector's dishonesty and mendacity in painting carbon capture and storage as a panacea demanding massive public investment when it's never offered a viable pathway to meaningful emission reduction. 

- Christopher Holcroft writes that the wildfires which tore through Jasper (and continue to threaten it) represent a compelling example of climate denialism made policy. Andrew Nikiforuk discusses the difficulty in responding to the increasingly imminent and widespread threat posed by global warming-fueled forest fires. And the Associated Press reports on new research suggesting that wildfire smoke may be even more harmful to our health (particularly our brains) than other forms of air pollution. 

- Jason Hickel and Dylan Sullivan examine the relationship between material production and existing human needs, and find that we have plenty of global output to meet a desirable standard of living for every human on the planet if it were properly planned and fairly distributed. Christopher Ketcham exposes how billionaires are funding a statistics institute intended to equate high-end wealth accumulation with human progress. And Cory Doctorow writes about the warped definition of property which makes consumer purchases of goods subordinate to corporate interests in controlling their use.

- Meanwhile, Hickel, Morena Hanbury Lemos and Felix Barbour find that similar work is subject to gross variances in pay around the globe. And Joan Westenberg calls out hustle culture which tries to blame individual workers for the intolerable systemic demands placed on them. 

- Finally, Adam King discusses the need for improved social supports to enable people (and disproportionately women) to meet the unpaid care demands being foisted on them. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett lament that inequality continues to get worse fifteen years after they warned of its myriad harms. And George Monbiot writes about the deadening effect of extreme wealth, as the people with the most achieve no particular benefit from hoarding and spending ever-more-unconscionable fortunes. 

- Alex Cosh examines new Statistics Canada data showing that the gap between the rich and poor is only widening, while Katia Lo Innes and Martin Lukacs offer a look at just ten of the mansions Pierre Poilievre has used to extract donations from the uber-wealthy to spend on ads pretending to care about the working class. 

- Meanwhile, Alex Hemingway notes that the replacement of right-wing Liberals with an NDP government in British Columbia has at least resulted in some level of tax fairness. And Kim Siever discusses how the proliferation of consumer debt suppresses workers' wages. 

- Adam King offers a reminder that Doug Ford (like other right-wing politicians) is refusing to allow migrant workers any protection against lethal heat in the workplace in order to protect corporate profits. And Allessandro Massazza discusses how extreme heat affects mental as well as physical health. 

- Finally, Jess Cockerill notes that the symptoms of our planetary climate breakdown include the rapid depletion of dissolver oxygen in water.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Oliver Milman discusses a new study showing that the costs of a climate breakdown roughly approximate what it would take to fight a domestic war in perpetuity. Sarah Waldrip examines the relationship between climate change and unexplained changes in oceanic tides as yet another example of how the climate crisis is altering our living environment in unanticipated and dangerous ways. And Sanjay Sisodiya and Mark Maslin find that climate change is also exacerbating the symptoms of numerous brain conditions.  

- Jonas Hosp et al. study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on cerebral microstructure as an apparent explanation for the sustained harms of long COVID. But Tamara Schneider writes about new research showing that repeated COVID vaccines also bolster the body's immune defences against a range of other viruses. 

- Torsten Bell points out that the UK (like Canada) has ample means to end child poverty if it's motivated to do so. But Adam Bienkov notes that PM Rishi Sunak is making out like a bandit in his family's personal wealth while standards of living are deteriorating. And Prem Sikka discusses the connection between corporate profiteering and the increase in citizens' cost of living. 

- On a similar note, Jim Stanford examines how the UCP has eliminated any wage advantage in Alberta while opening the province up for complete corporate exploitation. 

- Finally, Joan Westenberg calls out the use of social Darwinism as a basis to reward the rich and selfish at the expense of everybody else. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Cordell Jacks writes about the need for an economic model which evolves beyond the short-term exploitation of people and the planet. And Jessica McKenzie interviews Charlotte Kukowski about the importance of reprioritizing in the context of readily-apparent feedback loops between inequality and the climate crisis. 

- Daria Shapovalova reports on a landmark court decision determining that oil companies won't be able to avoid answering for downstream emissions in environmental assessments in Norway. But sadly, both Canada and the UK are continuing to rush through as much extraction and export as possible before anybody applies that standard to their fossil fuel sectors. 

- Marcus Baram reports on new legislation under consideration in New York which would ensure that large-scale wage thieves lose the privilege of doing business. 

- Adam King writes about the fight of Saskatchewan's teachers for tolerable working and learning conditions - and the Moe government's determination to avoid providing anything of the sort. 

- Aaron Wherry asks whether Justin Trudeau is reaching the point of regretting not keeping his promise of a fair and proportional electoral system. 

- Finally, Luke LeBrun points out that Stephen Harper's International Democrat Union has quietly scrubbed its links to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party - though the main news appears to be that  there exists a level of authoritarianism that even the IDU will disclaim. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Jessica Wildfire laments the great abdication of mutual responsibility which is resulting in countless preventable dangers being allowed to spread unabated. And Benedict Michael et al. study how COVID-19 is giving rise to sustained cognitive defects even as it's being treated as a non-issue. 

- Damian Carrington reports on a new analysis showing that 2023 temperatures just barely fell short of a 1.5 degree increase from the pre-fossil fuel period - with scientists warning that far worse is in store. 

- Naixin Qian et al. examine the effects of a high concentration of nanoplastics in bottled water. And Michelle Gamage reports on Canada's halting first steps to study and regulate the ingestion of "forever chemicals" through our food supply. 

- Charles Rusnell reports on the glaring conflicts of interest in Alberta's health care system, as profiteers are being allowed to steer patients to their own privately-owned clinics.  

- Finally Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria examine the fleecing of American workers to the tune of nine figures just in identified wage theft which hasn't been claimed. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Tess Finch Lee writes about the importance of doing everything we can to protect children (and indeed the general population) from COVID-19. But Thomas Piggott laments that instead of taking a lesson in interdependence and the need for social care, we've been pushed to avoid learning anything from the pandemic. 

-  Meanwhile, Isaac Callan and Colin D'Mello report on the Ontario health care facilities which are being left to crumble while the Ford government focuses on handing out riches to developers. 

- Erika Shaker points out how the cruel and coordinated conservative attacks on trans students also serve as an assault on public education generally. And Michael Harris discusses Mike Roman's place in the importation of Republican fascist politics and anti-democratic activity into Canada's right-wing parties. 

- Tyler Austin Harper and Leif Weatherby highlight how billionaires determined to sacrifice a liveable environment to the pursuit of short-term wealth hoarding are the ultimate existential threat to human survival. And The Juice Media offers a an Honest Government Ad from the government of Canada on its complete subserviance to fossil fuel tycoons in particular:

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- Finally, Yvette D'Etremont reports that half of Nova Scotia's working-age population is strugging to get by on less than a living wage. And Cory Doctorow writes about the prospects of the U.S. labour movement being strengthened by a restored precedent from the National Labor Relations Board which ensures that employers can't cheat their way to union avoidance. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Dawn Bowdish and Andrew Costa provide a reminder as to how to stay as safe as possible from COVID-19 (even as governments have abandoned any attempt to limit the spread of a dangerous disease). 

- Ryan Meili writes about the connection between the climate breakdown and increasing risks to health. Charles Stanier, Gregory Carmichael and Peter Thorne discuss how the severe wildfires and stifling smoke we've seen in 2023 is just the beginning of what's to come, while Ben Nesbit talks to experts about how this year's wildfires may be followed by flooding and other disasters. And Paula Duhatschek and Dan McGarvey discuss what the melting of glaciers in the Rocky Mountains means for the long-term water supply of much of Western Canada.  

- Stewart Lansley writes about the inescapable connection between worsening poverty in the UK and increasing wealth concentration among the most privileged few. Robert Reich offers a reminder of the deliberate effort of corporate tyrants to ensure that decision-making is based on no considerations other than short-term profits for capitalist. And Jason Linkins points out the propaganda campaign around shoplifting which serves to distract from the far more widespread scourge of wage theft. 

- Finally, Justin Ling and Public Policy Forum examine what they view as polarization in Canadian politics - though it's worth noting the inevitable determination to bothsides what's largely an issue of right-wing cult formation. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Crawford Kilian reviews two new books on the effects of an overheating planet. Damian Carrington reports on the science tracing unprecedented heat waves to climate change. And Jag Bhalla warns about the dangers of undue optimism about the state of our living environment - with the people with the least predictably standing to suffer the most.  

- Meanwhile, Elizabeth Rush describes the experience of arriving at a large glacier just in time to see it collapse. 

- Ari Pottens and Scott Seymour discuss the harm unmonitored methane releases are doing in exacerbating the climate breakdown. And David Thurton reports on the double-counting and general trickery behind the Libs' self-congratulation over tree-planting.  

- Pete Evans reports on yet another hike in profits for Loblaws, while the Canadian Press reports on the same as Metro even as it withholds reasonable wages from employees. 

- Finally, Jeff Ernsthausen exposes how the ultra-wealthy use "charitable" foundations to claim massive tax credits and avoid paying their fair share for a functional society. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Andrew Dessler writes about the non-linear nature of the environmental effects of carbon pollution - with the result that we're seeing cascading effects with each additional increase in temperature. And Sarah Kaplan discusses how we should be recognizing extreme weather events as alarm bells reflecting a climate breakdown in progress.

- The Guardian's editorial board writes that we can't afford to put our living environment on the back burner while perpetually finding other supposedly more immediate issues to prioritize first. And Margaret Shkimba points out the need for leaders to match rhetoric with action (though I'd argue there's a need to focus far more on policy decisions rather than personal theatre).

- Jonathan Freedland discusses how the oil sector has managed to control the public conversation about climate policy in order to keep lining its pockets at the expense of our planet. And Drew Anderson reports on yet another unconscionable UCP subsidy to dirty energy, this time paying $14 million in public money to make up for rent which oil barons couldn't be bothered to pay to landowners.  

- Lana Payne questions why the Bank of Canada is continuing to punish workers with increased interest rates and suppressed wages when there's little reason to believe that will do anything to limit inflation based on corporate profiteering. 

- Finally, David Macdonald and Ricardo Tranjan chart how much Canadian workers need to earn in order to afford housing - and how consistent a pattern there is of rents far exceeding what people can afford. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Mitchell Beer writes about the Canada Energy Regulator's recognition that the future will involve far less fossil fuel use than the oil industry and its spokespuppets want us to believe. And Marc Fawcett-Atkinson discusses how biomethane is just another distraction intended to turn the focus away from actual solutions. 

- Rob Thubron reports on Antonio Guterres' latest warning that continued dependence on fossil fuels is incompatible with a liveable planet, while Fiona Harvey reports on Avinash Persaud's call for far more support for developing countries facing the brunt of the damage of a climate breakdown so far. And Yale Climate Connections points out that there's strong public support for strong action to stop carbon pollution - even as people demanding action wrongly believe they're in the minority due to the cacophony of paid fossil fuel shills dominating any public discussion. 

- Tina Reed discusses how scientists seeking to provide people with accurate information within their disciplines are being harassed off of Twitter (and out of other public spaces) as the violent, anti-knowledge right is being deliberately legitimized by wealthy conservatives. And Cory Doctorow writes about the importance of presenting and defending an alternative to the corporatism and fascism - rather than presuming that the only option is to compromise on everything while satisfying nobody. 

- Omar Mosleh reports on Barrie's appalling proposal to outlaw any assistance to unhoused people. And Clara Pasieka reports on the movement pushing back against that naked cruelty. 

- Finally, Michael Sainato reports on the tens of billions of dollars being stolen from workers by employers every year in the U.S.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Piers Forster reports on new research showing that both greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures continue to push past all recorded records. Andrew Freedman adds sea surface temperatures to the list of indicators setting off alarm bells for anybody bothering to pay attention. And Shannon Osaka, Michael Miller and Beatrice Rios write about the danger that we're sleepwalking into a "fire age" even as our corporate overlords command us to keep burning things. 

- Bryan Owens writes about the causes of what may be an entire season of wildfire in Canada, while  David Ball reports that British Columbia is among the provinces facing the prospect of a devastating drought. Caroline Mimbs Nice connects California's recent spate of fires to the effects of climate change. Justine McDaniel writes about the possibility that direct experience of the consequences of a climate breakdown will make people more eager to push for action - along with the risk that it will be minimized and memory-holed at the first opportunity. 

- Frank Jordan comments on the glaring gap between the corporate sector's empty "net zero" pledges, and its willingness to follow up in any meaningful way. 

- Vanmala Subramaniam discusses how temporary CERB benefits provided workers with a modicum of opportunity to seek out better positions - which explains why it was discontinued so quickly and has been attacked with such vitriol by the Cons and their anti-social base. And Nicholas Hune-Brown discusses how libraries have been turned into the social service provider of last resort and singular cost-free public space (without having been provided with the resources needed to fill those roles). 

- Finally, Chris Pepin-Neff points out how the bigoted right's anti-trans campaign fits into the history of violent moral panics. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Will Stone writes about the role viral reservoirs may be playing in both prolonging individual long COVID symptoms, and allowing for the development of new variants. Simran Purewal, Kaylee Byers, Kayli Jamieson and Neda Zolfaghari highlight the need for people talking about the effects of long COVID to be believed rather than dismissed. But Apoorva Mandavilli reports on the CDC's choice to simply stop observing the effects of an ongoing pandemic.

- Meanwhile, Pete Evans reports on the latest push by employers to take away the benefits of remote work in order to force daily commutes and constant control on workers. David Macdonald discusses how public sector strikes have represented primarily an attempt to defend real wages from the effects of inflation, while Mitchell Thompson reminds us that Danielle Smith has made clear that the infliction of pain is the point in dealing with education and health care workers. And Paige Oamek talks to some of the younger workers organizing to ensure they're not at the mercy of callous employers.

- Eva Wiseman writes about the folly of trying to match even the most banal forms of consumption by the obscenely wealthy. And Paul Waldman discusses why the right to repair movement may be the unifying point for all kinds of people with a healthy skepticism of corporate control over our lives.

- Tom Perkins reports on research showing that toxic "forever chemicals" are included in the pesticides sprayed on crops.

- Charlie Angus writes that the push toward a clean energy economy has passed the point of theoretical transition to reach the development of large-scale employment. And Brian Potter discusses how nuclear power has done nothing but become more costly with time - making it absolutely useless in the context of plummeting prices for renewables and storage. 

- Finaly, Linda McQuaig writes that Doug Ford's to turn the public Ontario Place into a for-profit spa may eclipse the Highway 407 debacle as the most appalling handover of public assets for private profit in Ontario's history.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Alec Connon discusses how anger is an entirely appropriate response to the capitalist imperative to impose constant costs and burdens on people and the planet. And Alexandra Digby, Dollie Davis and Robson Hiroshi Hatsukami Morgan write that the collapse of First Republic Bank and other financial institutions can be traced directly to an incentive structure which rewards reckless risk-taking rather than responsible management and long-term planning. 

- Alex Lawson reports on yet another quarter of obscene windfall profits for BP, while Reuters reports on similar results for ExxonMobil and Chevron. And Geoff Dembicki exposes an Alberta group - known for shilling for the oil industry with false accusations against pipeline activists - is itself funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars of secret contributions from CNRL. 

- Lisa Young writes about the choice facing Alberta voters in the election campaign which began this week - with the oil-funded good ol' boy network being challenged in its assertion of perpetual dominance by a coalition seeking to at least expand the range of voices involved in shaping the province's future.  

- Finally, Cory Doctorow writes about the bondage fees used to keep workers from pursuing anything better than exploitative current jobs. And Bob Egelko reports on a court's determination that a single Marriott hotel stole over $9 million in tips from its banquet workers - with the typical consequence being nothing more than a belated requirement to pay it back. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Zak Vescera reports on the CCPA's new research showing how an increasing number of jobs in British Columbia are precarious - with already-disadvantaged workers especially likely to be affected. Don Pittis points out the Bank of Canada's continued attempts to hold wages below the rate of inflation, while offering much-needed space for Kaylie Tiessen to point out how that focus results in its being a soldier for capital in an ongoing class war. And Nick French writes that the essence of socialism is rooted in justice for workers pursuing what's rightfully theirs.

- Andrew Petter and Jim Rutkowski write about the value of progressive populism as a tool to make the case for an egalitarian society.  And Rowan Burdge, Jen Kostuchuk and Ismail Askin point out the importance of ensuring that social justice is embodied in any climate plan in order to ensure people see the benefits of a clean energy transition. 

- Meanwhile, Roberto Burgos discusses how the latest IPCC report is both alarming in its expectations, and unduly optimistic in its assumption that we'll manage a full transition away from carbon pollution.

- Finally, David Beers discusses the need to value journalism as a public good - particularly as the Cons and their provincial cousins attempt to stifle any reporting or commentary other than from their own side's propagandists.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Linda McQuaig calls out the Ford PCs for making it even more difficult to hold corporate health care operators to account for sub-par service. And Emma McIntosh, Fatima Syed and Denise Balkissoon discuss Ford's latest sketchy step to turn farmland and industrial areas into new suburban sprawl, 

- Guido Lorenzi and Ivan Werning theorize (PDF) that inflation is best seen as conflict-based, representing the accumulation of price increases by parties with the perceived market power to impose them. And Duncan Kinney offers a reminder that the largest set of money stolen is that pilfered from workers by employers. 

- Colin Woodard discusses how car payments are taking up an increasingly large share of already-strained U.S. incomes. And Paul Kiel examines how the ultrarich are able to claim private jets and yachts as tax deductions while most people have to pay for transportation from after-tax incomes. 

- Finally, J.W. Mason discusses why socialists should be eager to see industrial policy as a tool to ensure that productive capacity is used to meet human needs and develop desirable economic activity (including the tools for a just transition). And Kevin Anderson offers an overview of what an effective plan to limit warming to 1.5 degrees will require - while noting that what's needed far exceeds what any major actors currently have on the table. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Hayden Klein reports on new research suggesting a connection between COVID-19 infection and increased cancer rates (particularly in younger people). And the Trade Union Council and Long COVID Support survey how workers with long COVID have been treated by employers - finding that one in seven has lost their job, and two-thirds have faced employment discrimination for having the temerity to suffer from a disability.  

- Greg Jericho offers a reminder that allowing workers' pay to keep up with price increases shouldn't be treated as an affront to the economy. Valerie Tarasuk and Tim Li point out how the Trudeau Libs' short-term "grocery rebate" falls far short of the secure access to essential goods. And Armine Yalnizyan discusses how the Libs' budget falls far short of any self-proclaimed feminism in doing nothing to respond to the immediate needs of women who have been disproportionately hit by both a wave of inflation and stingy monetary policy. 

- Adam Radwanski and Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood each point out the problems with Libs' reliance on the corporate sector to dictate the terms of any climate progress. Merran Smith and Trevor Melanson point out the reality that fossil fuel jobs are disappearing based on forces far beyond the control of any Canadian government, making it thoroughly counterproductive to put off a transition to clean energy which will actually provide good long-term employment opportunities. And Alastair Marsh reports on new analysis showing that thanks to plummeting prices, there's effectively no cost to a shift to clean energy alternatives. 

- Finally, John Michael McGrath weighs in on the Ford PCs' callous decision to strip health care away from people without current proof of insurance.