The Great American Oil and Gas Cash Grab
As Canadian politicians proclaim their intention to protect national sovereignty, American shareholders are extracting revenues from Canada’s oil and gas industry — and stiffing workers.
117 Article(s) by: David Moscrop
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David Moscrop is a writer and political commentator. He hosts the podcast Open to Debate and is the author of Too Dumb For Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones.
What the Giving Pledge Really Gave Us
Most Giving Pledge dollars never reached the public, flowing instead to private foundations and donor-advised funds while billionaires grew richer, bought reputations for generosity, and handed back scraps to the people who made their fortunes.
Your Favorite Songs Are Wall Street’s Latest Investment
The growing popularity of the “Bowie” bond — a security backed by royalties — may sound strange, but it’s nothing new. In treating songs like annuities, capitalists prove once again that nothing is too sacred, or silly, to be commodified.
Performative Politics Is a Dead End
Canada’s New Democratic Party once rallied workers around a bold social democratic vision. The leadership contest now unfolding shows a center left so busy virtue signaling it forgets how to build power.
If the AI Bubble Pops, It Won’t Be the End
Like past waves of automation, AI isn’t going away. Boom or bust, the fight is over whose interests it will serve.
Work, Well-Being, and the Prospect of Job Extinction
Research shows that work shapes not only material life but also identity and community. If AI erases work as we know it, it could also erase the foundations of mass politics.
Want to End the EV Culture Wars? Make EVs Affordable.
Culture warriors and industry lobbyists have turned electric vehicles into a proxy battle for deeper anxieties about class, control, and who might be left behind in a green economy. But most people just want a car they can afford.
Is Donald Trump Winning the Tariff War?
Donald Trump’s tariffs may not amount to the end of neoliberalism. But their potential success — a sign that the neoliberal consensus is no longer hegemonic — suggests that the old world is dying, and the struggle over what replaces it has only just begun.
The Great Canadian Rights Grab
To keep the US happy, Mark Carney’s Liberal government is pushing Bill C-2 — expanding surveillance, limiting refugee protections, and eroding privacy in the name of national security. It’s Canada’s own PATRIOT Act, minus the excuse of an actual attack.
Mark Carney Is Hacking Away at Canada’s Public Sector
Just over 100 days into his term, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney is taking aim at the size of the state while ramping up military spending. He’s launched a whole-of-government review, pushing deep cuts, deregulation, and a $9 billion boost to defense.
Democratize AI or Make the AI Oligarchy an Inevitability
Artificial intelligence technologies are leading us to a critical juncture, forcing a fundamental rethinking of both work and the welfare state. This is a field where early surrender, allowing capital to shape the future, is not an option.
The US Economy Runs on Billionaire Pocket Change
The top 10% of earners account for almost half of all consumer spending in the United States. Wealth concentration has made economic stability shockingly reliant on elite consumption.
Where Will Canada’s Workers Go After the Election?
Nationalist backlash against Donald Trump helped stall right-wing populism. But Canadian workers are still drifting rightward, and the social democratic NDP is in shambles.
For All That Is Good About Humankind, Ban Smartphones
Smartphones are making us unhealthy, miserable, antisocial, and less free. If we can’t yet nationalize the attention economy, maybe it’s time to abolish its primary tool — before it finishes abolishing us.
Here Lies Hudson’s Bay Company, Murdered by Private Equity
Hudson’s Bay Company, Canada’s oldest retailer, didn’t die of natural causes — it was gutted by private equity. Stripped of assets and loaded with debt, it leaves behind job losses, endangered pensions, and a hollowed-out legacy reduced to branding rights.
Maybe We Need a New Word for “Inequality”
America’s richest earn in hours what ordinary workers earn over lifetimes. As Donald Trump’s tax bill seeks to make the plunder of the filthy rich permanent, “inequality” no longer feels like a strong enough word for what we’re facing.
The AI and Copyright Issues Dividing Trump’s Court
The Trump coalition unites anti-corporate populists and libertarian futurists — two factions with irreconcilable views. The struggle over AI copyright underscores just how unstable that alliance has become.
Canada’s Election Didn’t Halt Class Dealignment
Canada’s nationalist backlash against Donald Trump helped stall right-wing populism in this week’s election, but the underlying class dealignment remains. Workers are still drifting rightward, and the social democratic NDP is in shambles.
Canada Is Betting on Mark Carney, Technocrat Extraordinaire
As an election looms, Mark Carney is the face of Canada’s Liberal Party comeback — and the latest figure to stand between the country and Trump-era fallout. He may also be its first casualty.
Jacobin Writer Jailed 5 Days for Criticizing Israel
The Right’s newfound love of censorship proves what many suspected: its free speech absolutism was always conditional. Just ask Jacobin contributor Yves Engler, recently jailed in Canada for five days for online criticism of Israel’s supporters.