Claim OwnershipPerspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy
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© 2026 Broadbent Institute
Description
The Perspectives Journal Podcast complements the journal and opinions content of Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy, to bring out left-wing ideas and strategy in a new and ever-evolving format. The podcast features interviews with policy experts, to dig deeper into the progressive angles of the issues affecting working-class, ordinary Canadians.
Hosted by editor-in-chief, Clement Nocos, the Perspectives Journal Podcast aims to bring forward timely analysis on issues from the multiple crises of the economy, cost-of-living and the environment, to the labour movement, as well as the state of Canadian democracy. The wide reaching breadth of this show aims to help inform policymakers and the public about approaches to today’s pressing problems that are rooted in Ed Broadbent’s Principles for Canadian Social Democracy.
Perspectives Journal also produces and features shows hosted by the Broadbent Institute’s friends and affiliates, providing a progressive platform for limited and irregular conversations that are still necessary to enliven Canada’s political discourse. The Perspectives Journal Podcast is a proud members of the Harbinger Media Network, Canada’s progressive podcast community.
Activists Make History
Activists Make History with Peggy Nash is a new podcast series from Perspectives Journal that finds the political underdogs and asks how they got started, against the odds, to fight for progressive change. Policymakers, activists and experts from underrepresented communities and backgrounds, that are typically pushed to the margins of Canadian political life, are front and centre in conversation with Peggy Nash, who has been a union activist, a feminist advocate, and a Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons for nearly a decade.
Reflecting on these experiences as a political outsider, and in conversation with other like-minded outsiders that take our struggles into the halls of power, Activists Make History aims to show how we can win a better world through elected office. Activists Make History is only made possible by the generous contribution of Unifor.
65 Episodes
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The NDP leadership hopeful reflects on her roots in student organizing to usher in a new era for progressive organizing in the federal NDP. SUBSCRIBE to the Perspectives Journal Podcast and Activists Make History for previous and upcoming interviews with the 2026 NDP leadership race candidates. Tanille Johnston is a social worker, city councilor, and candidate running to be the next leader of the federal NDP. A member of the We Wai Kai First Nation, she has led an impactful career in Indigeno...
Rather than treating feminism and social democracy as separate projects, Agnes Macphail understood both as essential to building a more democratic and equal society. A committed social democrat, Agnes Macphail was Canada’s first woman elected to Parliament and a leader whose politics were shaped by a lifelong opposition to patriarchy and sexism. Over two decades in the House of Commons, she used her parliamentary career to champion causes including peace, prison reform, progressive taxation, ...
Even the rich agree: extreme wealth inequality is a threat to democracy. In a new survey conducted by Patriotic Millionaires of millionaires and billionaires across G20 countries, 65% agree that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy. Yet, in front of billionaires on the Davos stage of the World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Mark Carney touts tax cuts and subsidies for AI data centres while mourning the end of the liberal world order and democratic backsliding. On the other hand, NDP leader...
Heather McPherson is channeling value-driven politics in her campaign for NDP leadership. SUBSCRIBE to the Perspectives Journal Podcast and Activists Make History for previous and upcoming interviews with the 2026 NDP leadership race candidates. Since 2019, Heather McPherson has been Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona, securing a once-contentious parliamentary seat through three federal elections. Raised in a working-class home in Edmonton, she spent more than 15 years working with ...
Tony McQuail is channeling decades of grassroots activism to platform rural issues and a green progressive vision for the federal NDP. Stay tuned for future episodes with other candidates in the 2026 NDP leadership race. Tony McQuail is an organic farmer and candidate running to be the next leader of the federal NDP. A lifelong activist, he has run for office multiple times, served on the Huron County Board of Education, and spent decades organizing around sustainable farming, rural issues, a...
Peggy Nash is bringing conversations from the campaign trail to Activists Make History, speaking with candidates running to be the next leader of the federal NDP. Avi Lewis is a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and candidate running to be the next leader of the federal NDP. Born in Toronto, he built a career telling stories about movements for economic and social justice, from worker-run enterprises to global climate campaigns. On this episode of Activists Make History, host Peggy Nash talk...
This Scottish-born preacher turned politician helped lay the foundation for early social democratic electoral success in Alberta and across Canada. William Irvine’s life and career reflects the power of persistence in struggles. Born to a working-class familyin the Shetland Islands, Irvine immigrated to Canada to lead a Unitarian church congregation in Alberta. After arriving in Calgary in 1916, he was swept up by the social gospel movement of the time. He ran for political office with the La...
A pioneer of Canadian prairie socialism, E.A. Partridge was a radical farmer who organized Saskatchewan grain growers in the face of rampant price fixing. The founder of the 'Grain Growers' Grain Company' cooperative and publisher of the Grain Growers' Guide, Partridge was a major player in the history of Canadian social democracy. Learn about his "Partridge plan" and the social democratic roots of western Canadian alienation on this episode of Social Democrats of the North. -- Social Democra...
One of the most iconic socialists in Canadian history, most on the Canadian left may likely identify J.S. Woodsworth as Canada's first social democrat. Woodsworth was an organizer of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike and the first leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, founded in 1932. This episode of Social Democrats of the North reflects on the Social Gospel that saw Jesus as a radical socialist, the farmers and labour movements that struggled for power over the Canadian Prairie...
The new book by Peggy Nash & Julie White tells the untold stories of dozens of women leaders in the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union. In November 2025, Between the Lines books published Women United: Stories of Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union by Peggy Nash and Julie White. The co-authors were interviewed by Tricia Wilson, Director of Equity and Racial Justice at Unifor, at their November 13 book launch in Toronto. About Women United: Based on the firstha...
What was the place of feminism in early Canadian social democracy? This episode looks at one of the first feminist social democrats in Canadian history: Francis Marion Beynon. Her work as journalist in Winnipeg in the early 1900s was critical for pointing out how exploitation wasn’t just about workers and bosses — it was also about the way that women were being treated by their husbands at home. -- Social Democrats of the North: Canadian Visions for Justice & Equality from Confedera...
In the early 20th century, Montreal was a hotbed of radical thinking on working-class politics and Quebec’s place in Canada. Amidst working-class poverty and the upheaval around the First World War, Olivar Asselin emerged as one of Montreal's most famous journalists who advocated for Quebec's working poor. Named, in-part, after Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, Asselin foray into the military was more misguided than his namesake's campaigns for liberation, but still establishe...
The 350 Canada Campaigns Manager collaborated with climate, labour, Indigenous, and social justice movements to draw the line against fossil fuel expansion. On September 20, 2025, thousands of Canadians took to the streets uniting climate justice, migrant justice, economic justice, Indigenous rights, and anti-war movements, calling for government action. Helping coordinate the more than 70 community demonstrations across Canada was Atiya Jaffar, National Campaigns Manager at 350 Canada. Activ...
The prolific satirist-turned-labour-leader penned the first full account of working-class struggles in 19th century Canada. Shortly after Confederation, Canadian cities were teeming with impoverished workers and rapid industrialization. While socialist movements were taking shape across Europe, Phillips Thompson became a leading voice for Canadian labour in Southwestern Ontario. Writing sharp political satire under the pen name “Jimuel Briggs,” Thompson gained recognition as one of Canada’s e...
In September 2025 the Broadbent Institute joined left–wing think tanks from Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain to support the establishment of a global network of think tanks that produce rigorous analysis, foster data-driven debate, and contribute to the search for proposals in defense of democracy. In the declarative agreement behind the establishment of the new Red Internacional de Pensamiento Democratico or International Network of Democratic Thought, progressive civil soc...
It’s 1867 and Canada has just officially separated itself from Great Britain and become its own country. But, are there any social democrats around? In this episode, we meet Médéric Lanctôt - the journalist, politician, and union leader from Montreal who can be considered to be Canada’s first social democrat. From working with the homeless to organizing a federation of unions, learn about how Lanctôt fought back against the political and economic elites of his time who were selfishly lining t...
In the the Summer 2025 issue of Perspectives Journal, University of Calgary post doc and Parkland Institute board member Mack Penner wrote ‘Carney and the Calgary School: or, Passive Revolution and Canada’s Social State in the Neoliberal Era,’ tracing the origins of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic thinking to the Calgary School. The Calgary School is described as an informal grouping of conservative academics that played an active and significant role in Canadian politics during the 199...
Peggy Nash chats with Air Canada flight attendants union leader Wesley Lesosky about the recent strike and the fight for fair pay in the airline industry. In August 2025, Air Canada flight attendants made headlines for striking when the employer left the bargaining table and for refusing to follow back-to-work orders issued by the Carney government at the behest of business. Leading the charge was Wesley Lesosky, a steadfast union leader and president of the CUPE Air Canada component. From hi...
At the 2025 Panamerican Congress in Mexico City, held August 1st to 3rd, hosted by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her Morena Parliamentary Group, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein gave remarks at the Esperanza Iris theatre. The author of 'The Shock Doctrine,' 'No Logo,' and most recently the memoir 'Doppelganger,' presented remarks to delegations at the Panamerican Congress, an annual conference of progressive legislators from Nunavut to Tierra del Fuego, entitled: 'The Rise of End-of...
At this time last year in late July 2024, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad announced that G20 finance leaders were poised to endorse a joint declaration on international tax cooperation that would hopefully help to clamp down on so-called “tax havens” by encouraging G20 countries to standardize taxes on billionaires. Since then, Canada, a G20 country, has not moved to act on the recommendations to cooperate and coordinate with other countries on taxes, spearheaded by the Brazilian g...
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