Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Robert Frank reports on the latest galling threshold in wealth inequality, as millionaires consisting of less than 1% of the population now control effectively half of the wealth on Earth. And Steven Greenhouse asks why actual workers aren't being included in talks about the future of work and the economy.

- Neil Macdonald warns Justin Trudeau that he can't keep substituting evasion for meaningful answers and conversations about his poor decisions. And Andrew Jackson is rightfully aghast at the Libs' choice to prioritize tax cuts over anything which might actually help Canadians:

The major reason to not support this tax cut is that it is costly since a small cut is spread across so many people. Annual federal government revenues will fall by about $6 Billion per year, a significant chunk of change which will increase each year as and when the economy grows. Moreover, the federal government’s fiscal base is likely to be ratcheted down in perpetuity since it is unlikely that any party will propose a future across the board increase in personal income taxes.

Most progressives would prefer the Liberals to abandon their tax cut, and use it to fund other priorities such as investment in affordable housing, clean and renewable energy, public transit, public health care, child care, or post secondary education. $6 Billion added to seriously inadequate Liberal promises to fund a national pharmacare program would be sufficient to make the promise a reality.

The opposition parties in Parliament, the Conservatives aside, would likely agree. But the Prime Minister seems to have already made up his mind.

Call me a cynic, but this looks like yet another case of the Liberals campaigning from the left, and governing from the right. After just two days!

- Linda McQuaig notes that Jason Kenney is trying to crush the climate concerns of two thirds of Canada (not to mention the well-being of our living environment) in the name of a fabricated threat to unity. And Aaron Wherry notes that it's the Cons who have an obvious reason to revisit their functional denialism in light of this week's election.

- Andrew Coyne offers a reminder how first-past-the-post turns elections into high-stakes bets for unaccountable power, rather than meaningful opportunities to discuss policy choices. And David Kilgour writes that this week's results in particular demonstrate how Canadians would be better represented under a proportional system.

- Finally, Michal Rozworski comments on both the missed opportunities to move our political discussion further toward social and climate justice before election day, and the prospect of building the needed movement now that our political leaders face a minority Parliament.