BRAND LOYALTY AND PARTY PITCHES SPOTTING THE CORPORATE FROM PODEMOS IN SPAIN: IN THE 2015 ELECTION /28 THE CRITICAL MAKERSPACE /34 WILL THE MOMENTUM LAST? /39 MONITOR Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, May/June 2015 TWENTY YEARS OF BRIGHT IDEAS THE ALTERNATIVE FEDERAL BUDGET Your New Monitor AUL BROWNE, DUNCAN Cameron, Bruce Camp- But to reach the broadest audience possible, in bell, Ed Finn and Diane Touchette launched a post–Web 2.0 age, the Monitor needed to be the CCPA Monitor on May 1, 1994. Coinci- much more than a bulletin. As Netscape’s guts dentally, that was the year Mosaic Commu- live on in the more nimble Firefox browser, we nications Corporation started offering Net- will continue to cover inequality, climate change, scape Navigator as a free download. The trade and investment agreements, technology, Pfirst generation web browser would define how labour and other issues, but with a much higher people accessed and shared information online, quotient of CCPA research and original feature but it would be a few years before the World Wide articles you won’t find anywhere else. In-depth Web became our primary source of information thematic issues bringing together a wide variety (news, entertainment, travel planning, etc.) and, of perspectives will, we hope, both enhance and for many, the main medium for personal and pro- challenge our understanding of the world. And fessional interactions (email, file transfers, shop- though we will print six issues per year compared ping and banking). At the turn of the millennium, to the previous 10, they will be longer and easier less than half of Canadians were Internet users. to read. This gives us more time to prepare, and Today it is closer to 85%. you more time to read, each one. In a similar way, but on a slightly smaller scale, Since making the Monitor free to download on the Monitor hoped to be a vital new medium for the CCPA website in November, our online reader- progressive ideas that would also grow the sup- ship has grown by thousands. Many more choose porter base of the CCPA. As the mainstream me- to receive the magazine at home, possibly be- dia adopted the government-corporate consen- cause it’s easier to read, or they like to share it sus that there was no alternative to free-market with friends and colleagues, or out of a commit- globalization, opposing viewpoints were purged ment to the CCPA and progressive causes. As we from much of the news. A bulletin “reporting on make the Monitor more attractive and accessi- business, labour and government” from a pro- ble to new readers, we hope we can draw thou- gressive perspective filled a need for alterna- sands more readers to its pages. Not all new on- tive viewpoints. Membership surged, and as the line readers will become CCPA supporters, but CCPA grew in stature and influence, the Moni- some of them will. This is more than a facelift. tor grew with it. It’s a chance to really show off what the CCPA has to offer in a format that we hope appeals to After more than two decades, and on this 35th an- both current readers as well as those who nev- niversary of the CCPA, the Monitor is rebooting to er knew the world before the Internet. adapt to new political opportunities and techno- logical challenges. Neoliberalism produced great We have lofty goals and they are the same as they wealth at the cost of extreme inequality and ex- were for the Monitor’s first editors: to reach new istential pressure on the Earth’s ecosystems. It minds and expand popular support for some- has put a drag on traditional growth everywhere times modest, sometimes radical political and while leaving millions in poverty. When even the economic alternatives to the flagging neoliber- International Monetary Fund recognizes this in al order. We couldn’t have gotten to this point global economic outlook reports, you know the without you. Your support is the only reason the space for dialogue has expanded. That is, there Monitor continues to exist. And your guidance is a wider and more receptive audience for new will be critical to making it continually better. solutions to the inter-related economic, social and environmental crises affecting Canada and the world today. May/June 2015 DELIVERING THE GOOD 14 A Special Feature on the 20th Anniversary Alternative Federal Budget ELECT US Values Politics, Branding, and the Federal Election 28 RICHARD NIMIJEAN PUTTING THE CRITICAL 34 BACK INTO MAKERSPACES LAURA ELIZABETH PINTO THE IRRESISTIBLE RISE OF PODEMOS 39 ASAD ISMI 2 /CONTRIBUTORS 3 /EDITORIAL 5 /FEEDBACK 6 /NEW FROM THE CCPA 7 /THE INDEX 8 /BEHIND THE NUMBERS 41 /FILM 43 /BOOKS 46 /PERSPECTIVES 48 /THE GOOD NEWS PAGE CCPA MONITOR Contributors ISSN 1198-497X CANADA POST PUBLICATION 40009942 Anne-Marie Bouchard Richard Nimijean Julius Stoller photographed this is a professor in the School is a retired surgeon in CCPA MONITOR IS PUBLISHED 6 TIMES month's cover. She is an of Canadian Studies at British Columbia. A YEAR BY THE CANADIAN CENTRE Ottawa-based freelance Carleton University. His Amy Thompson FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES. photographer who has teaching and research is an Ottawa-based mixed been photographing examine the phenomenon THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE CCPA media artist. Early in her people, places and things of branding Canada and MONITOR ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS career she began working since 2001 (ambphoto. the politics of the brand AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT with appropriated images, com). state, including the THE VIEWS OF THE CCPA. drawn to their immediacy intersections of Canadian Amy Casipullai and narrative power. Her ARTICLES MAY BE REPRINTED AND politics and society, is the senior co- subjects exist both within DISTRIBUTED FOR FREE FOR EDUCATIONAL national identity and ordinator, policy and and without our reality, PURPOSES. FOR ALL OTHER PERMISSIONS, public policy. WRITE [email protected]. communications, with straddling and exploring the Ontario Council Laura Elizabeth Pinto the places in between PLEASE SEND FEEDBACK TO of Agencies Serving is an assistant professor at (amyalice.com). [email protected]. Immigrants. the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. EDITOR: STUART TREW Remie Geoffroi She has been recognized SENIOR DESIGNER: TIM SCARTH has been working as a with a Canadian Governor LAYOUT: SUSAN PURTELL professional illustrator for General’s Gold Medal, EDITORIAL BOARD: BRUCE CAMPBELL, over 15 years with high- the University of Windsor KERRI-ANNE FINN, SETH KLEIN, KATE MCINTURFF, profile international clients Odyssey Award, and ERIKA SHAKER, EMILY TURK and publications. He is the Ontario Business a regular contributor to CCPA NATIONAL OFFICE: Educators’ Hillmer Award. Billboard, ESPN, GQ and 500-251 BANK ST., OTTAWA, ON K2P 1X3 She has authored and the Wall Street Journal. TEL: 613-563-1341 | FAX: 613-233-1458 coauthored 11 books, [email protected] Avvy Go and was shortlisted WWW.POLICYALTERNATIVES.CA is the clinic director of the for a Speaker’s Book CCPA BC OFFICE: Metro Toronto Chinese Award from the Ontario 1400-207 WEST HASTINGS ST., & Southeast Asian Legal Legislature for Curriculum VANCOUVER, BC V6B 1H7 Clinic. Reform in Ontario TEL: 604-801-5121 | FAX: 604-801-5122 (University of Toronto Asad Ismi [email protected] Press, 2012). Asad Ismi is an award- CCPA MANITOBA OFFICE: winning journalist and Nancy Reid UNIT 205-765 MAIN ST., WINNIPEG, MB R2W 3N5 radio documentary maker is a freelance graphic TEL: 204-927-3200 | FAX: 204-927-3201 whose work focuses designer and illustrator. [email protected] on U.S. and Canadian Her work can be seen at imperialism, and resistance nrgrafix.com. CCPA NOVA SCOT IA OFFICE: to it, in the Global South. P.O. BOX 8355, HALIFAX, NS B3K 5M1 Chandra Siddan He covers international TEL: 902-240-0926 is a Toronto-based writer affairs for the Monitor. [email protected] and filmmaker. Christine Jones CCPA ONTARIO OFFICE: Jim Stanford is an activist and social 10 DUNDAS STREET EAST, is an economist with movement strategist with P.O. BOX 47129, TORONTO, ON, M5B 0A1 Unifor and a research a long history with the TEL: 416-598-5985 associate with the peace movement. Since [email protected] Canadian Centre for Policy 2008, she has been the Alternatives. His book, CCPA SASKATCHEWAN OFFICE: co-chair of the Canadian Economics for Everyone, 2ND FLOOR, 2138 MCINTYRE STREET Peace Alliance, Canada’s is being republished in a REGINA, SK S4P 2R7 largest umbrella peace second edition by Pluto TEL: 306-924-3372 | FAX: 306-586-5177 and anti-war coalition, and Press and will be available [email protected] was the director of Peace for purchase in June. Brigades International (Canada section) from 2004 to 2013. Editorial Stuart Trew What Is C-51 For? HE HIGH-PROFILE DUFFY trial is said wrong and suggested others had ter- So what is C-51 for? A cynic might to have put a spotlight on the rorist sympathies. At the end of the say it’s most useful for scoring a few inner workings of the federal charade, the government majority on more tough-on-crime votes in the government and notably the committee voted down all opposition next election. Probably, though, we chain of command from the amendments to C-51, but agreed to should take the government for grant- PMO downwards — the who- table four minor changes, no doubt ed when it says the targets are young Tknew-what of the Nigel Wright handed to them by the PMO, that Muslims or recent converts, mostly cheque exchange, for example, if an- leave the bill’s most overreaching and men, who have been “radicalized” by yone still cares.