- From inflation to interest rates to grocery prices to ... profiteering?
Thursday, October 27th 2022
Interest rates have risen again. Inflation has not declined. Almost everything costs more right now, especially groceries. Meanwhile, in the wake of two major companies announcing temporary price freezes within hours of one another, Canada's competition bureau has announced its intention to study why grocery prices are so high, and if having more players in the market would lower them.
Are higher prices a result of inflation, profiteering, or both? How can we tell, anyway? Did the price freezes spur this investigation, or was this something planned all along? And is raising interest rates to combat inflation really our best option? What else could we try if this doesn't work?
GUEST: Jim Stanford, Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work
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- Inside the BC NDP leadership 'trainwreck'
Wednesday, October 26th 2022
It seemed like there was a fight for the soul of the party that also governs the province. Until there wasn't. A week before the vote, the challenger with all the momentum was disqualified from the race, paving the way for longtime MLA David Eby to become leader, and the province's premiere.
So what happened? What was the split dividing the party, and how did the contest come to such an abrupt end? What happens now to challenger Anjali Appadurai and the thousands of new members she'd recruited? And what does this do to Eby's forthcoming attempts to govern a province on the front lines of Canada's climate crisis?
GUEST: Arno Kopecky, BC-based environmental journalist, covering the race for Canada's National Observer
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- Exactly what the &*^% has been going on in UK politics?
Tuesday, October 25th 2022
Our friends across the pond are about to have their third Prime Minister in two months, without an election. Boris Johnson was finally ousted, only to be replaced by Liz Truss, who managed to tank the economy before resigning last week. Now Rishi Sunak is set to take on the role, and the Conservatives hope he'll hold it until a general election that's still ... 18 months away.
But why is an election so far away? How exactly did Johnson manage to resign and then almost get his old job back? Exactly how did Truss screw things up so badly so fast? And just ... in general ... what the hell is going on over there?
GUEST: Professor Matthew Flinders, Politics, University of Sheffield; Founding Director, Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics
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- Why does legal sex work carry a scarlet letter?
Monday, October 24th 2022
There's a reason OnlyFans almost banned the content that drives the vast majority of its revenue last year. It's the same reason sex workers who sell content online speak in code on social media and sometimes call themselves "accountants". If identified as someone who sells adult content, all of a sudden any financial transaction can become ten times harder, even simple things like banking or buying airline tickets.
A new case that will make its way to the Supreme Court of Canada may decriminalize all sex work in this country, but even that may not stop financial discrimination. In the year 2022, why are creators who sell perfectly legal content and services still facing this discrimination?
GUEST: Maggie MacDonald, PhD candidate, University of Toronto, research focus on pornography platforms. Read her article in The Walrus here
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- Why are so many bands cancelling tours?
Friday, October 21st 2022
Covid is only part of the problem. For any musical act that hasn't hit 'star' status, the current reality of putting together a tour, and keeping it on the road, is basically a highwire act. And one that can very easily lose money rather than make it.
Why is it so tough to perform live music right now? Who's cancelling tours and why? And what happens to Canadian music if only the superstars can afford to show up for the fans? How do artists stay afloat?
GUEST: Kyle Mullin, writing in Exclaim
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