To appropriate a quote from right wing economist Milton Friedman (Pierre Poilievre’s ideological hero!) the change that happens now will depend on the “ideas lying around” - those policies that have been kept alive in think tanks and wonky policy shops, waiting for a political moment like this one, that creates the space for governments to act boldly.
Our opponents have their ideas ready and waiting: so do we. On the side of huge corporations, it’s the same ideas as ever – slashing government programs for people, fast-tracking megaprojects that will generate fountains of profits for those who already have way too much wealth, while sprinkling a relatively small number of jobs around a handful of communities.
On our side, we have policies that will leverage the power of the federal government to actually solve the emergencies we face: from our economic dependence on the US, to the cost of living disaster that a tariff war would deepen, to the existential threat of the climate unraveling.
Today we are going to focus on two of the sectors that are closest to home and most important to us all, food and childcare. These are not only fundamentally important topics for moral reasons. They are also key sectors of the Canadian economy that could lay the foundation of a new Canadian sovereignty – rooted in care, collective compassion, and love of this beautiful land.
🛒 FOOD FIGHTBACK:
Ten bucks for butter? Apples $2 each? We need price caps on staples—like France did last year.[2] We need to tax grocery giants windfall profits and reinvest in food security. And it’s past time to protect the migrant workers who keep our food system growing.
This issue is simple but profoundly important. Right now Canadians are being gouged at the supermarket cash register by a small group of corporations that act like a cartel – jacking up prices, and deploying “shrinkflation” to sell us less for more. They’ve also been caught in a series of scandals - from “Tatergate" [3], a class action lawsuit in the US against Canadian potato corporations price-fixing Tater Tots (is nothing sacred?) to Loblaws and others charging us for the packaging on meat. For years.[4]
The simple answer is price caps for food, an NDP policy that was successfully implemented in France just last year. With the cost of living about to shoot up again, we must prevent price gouging by Canada’s corporate grocery magnates.
We also need windfall profit taxes for corporations that are price-fixing in the midst of a cost-of-living emergency. And ultimately, we need to break up these virtual monopolies - either by giving the Competition Bureau the tools to actually rein in greedy corporations, or by introducing a public option for groceries - a public, non-profit supermarket model. Nothing would get prices down faster than some real competition in the public interest!
Furthermore, while we’re all ironing our flags and searching out Canadian-grown food, it’s long past time to remember who keeps the food system running: migrant farmworkers! In the words of SK Hussan of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change [5],“Buying local means standing with the workers who grow and prepare our food".
Canada’s food industry runs on migrant labour. Fruits, vegetables, meat, wine, flowers—all harvested by migrants, many earning poverty wages, facing abuse, and denied basic rights. Amnesty International calls the conditions “shocking abuse and discrimination.” [6]
Solidarity does not begin and end at the checkout aisle. To ensure justice, we must also fight for full immigration status for all.”
🧑🏭 CARE & REPAIR:
The $10/day childcare plan won’t work without workers. A competitive starting wage of $30-40/hour is critical so more families can access affordable childcare.
$10 a day childcare is one promise the federal Liberals actually moved on (with decades of pressure from the NDP.) Vancouver, with its longstanding focus on non-profit childcare centres, finally has more than a third of daycare spaces at the promised price. But why is $10/day still out of reach for too many working families? Why are so many in Vancouver still left dangling on waiting lists or paying $1,000/month or more?
Because despite the framework legislation, federal funding, and provincial agreements, the Liberals failed to value one key element of the system: the workers! They should have required that provinces implement a fair wage grid but they did not. Now there’s a desperate shortage of childcare workers – and as a result, programs are struggling to operate at full capacity, and families are still paying way more than they should. A starting wage of $30-$40/hr is what’s needed [7], according to the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC.
Research has shown that investments in this sector of the economy not only save Canadians money but have tremendous positive implications for childhood development, the quality of our precious youngsters’ lives, and the fulfilment of their dreams and aspirations - to our profound collective benefit.[8]
It's sad honestly that we even need to make an argument for universal, truly affordable childcare. I mean…this is our freaking kids we are talking about! But it’s worth saying anyway: investing in childcare benefits all of Canadian society.
It’s a key pillar of an economy based on care, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a core Canadian value - worth protecting and strengthening in this time of economic crisis brought on by aggression from our neighbour to the south.
Also (and we’ll have more to say about this in days to come) care work is climate work. Every childcare worker with a dignified wage is a model of how we must re-imagine low-carbon green jobs.
What do you think? Do you have some ideas lying around that you would like to see further explored? Join the conversation on Blueskyor Tik Tok and show you support for big ideas.
In our next installment, we will be diving into climate and renewable energy for Canadian sovereignty, and more.
Avi Lewis
Vancouver Centre
Sources:
1.https://bsky.app/profile/avilewis.bsky.social/post/3lidoxy7hnc2e
2.https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/business-food/france-inflation-food-price-caps/index.html
3. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/potato-cartel-fries-tater-tots-hash-browns-1.7387960
4. https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/01/canadas-grocery-scandals-10-years-of-price-fixing-mislabelling/
5. https://migrantworkersalliance.org/
6. https://amnesty.ca/features/temporary-foreign-workers-report/
7. https://www.10aday.ca/bc_2023_ofm_lacks_wage_grid
8. https://www.10aday.ca/resources - Download Socio-Economic Report
