Vote with a Brick Steve & Tim

This week we're taking another look at Canada's foreign policy, through the framing of Ed Burmila's "Naught by NATO" -- an article we've referenced before.

Since the last time we tried to talk about this was frankly a bit embarrassing, we brought in a ringer to help us stumble through. Kaliene Jackson has studied the rhetoric and impacts (and the gap between them) of Canada's Feminist Foreign Aid program and helps us envision what a truly leftist foreign policy would look like. 

We've been taking a little summer break and this week we're bringing you an episode we recorded in the midst of the Ontario election. As a bulwark against the ongoing trudge into barbarism and cynicism, we've dreamt up some grounded, realistic "demands" to immediately make worker's lives materially better. 

Steve takes a quick look at improvements that could immediately improve housing affordability, desirability and walkability. And continues to gind his axe about landlords.

Tim (of course) wanted to talk about trains.

H-hey guys? We really should fix that enviornment, eh? 

And: Is $15 "Fair"? Is $20 "Plenty?" We're well overdue a raise -- and a union. 

Some stuff we mentioned: 
The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxWjtpzCIfA

"How Are You Going to Pay for That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics" by Ryan Cooper
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250272348/howareyougoingtopayforthat

IPCC Sixth's Assessment
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii/

Fifteen and Fairness
https://www.15andfairness.org/

Francis Bourgeois, TikTokker Loves Trains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfM6DFn_h58

This week, Tim and a very congested Steve are joined by indigenous activist and labour organizer Carissa Taylor. A recent transplant to the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations -- also known as Vancouver -- Carissa shares how she's navigated her work with indigenous peoples on the Western Coast and how she understands Canada Day through the lens of her own identity as a settler-passing Métis woman and an anti-colonial activist. 

TL;DR: fuck the flag; they can have it. 

Stavros Halkias "Canada is Stupid" (RE: Land Acklowledgements)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fHzrbskBTZQ

#Next150
https://next150.indianhorse.ca/

Indigenous Blue Jays Logo:
https://twitter.com/paintsbyparkin/status/1507043245561466880

Indigenous Jets Logo: 
https://www.nhl.com/news/jets-indigenous-inspired-logo-profound-experience-for-artist/c-314090206

"The Dawn of Everything" Graeber and Rengrow:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeverything

Well, it's a month late and an (Australian) dollar short, but we are finally releasing a fascinating conversation with labour organizer (and Shadowfist player) Cameron Watson. From ranked ballot voting to whacky independents and democracray sausages, there's a lot to envy about Australia's political landscape. At the very least, you can't say it's boring (which is a lot more than we can say about Ontario's now-thankfully-over provincial election. 

How the Australian Senate Works: 
https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/counting/senate_count.htm

You're welcome: 
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=Engadine+Maccas

This week, Tim (all by himself) brings you a fascinating conversation about populism with political scientist Simon Black. Tim and Simon discuss how the rhetoric and "thin" political strategy of appealing to working people as a class has been so effective on the political right and what the left can do in response.

Find Simon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SimonBlack

What's The Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805077742/whatsthematterwithkansas

Prisoners of the American Dream by Mike Davis
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2759-prisoners-of-the-american-dream

The Great Moving Right Show, an essay, by Stuart Hall
https://newint.org/features/1984/03/05/show

The Hard Road to Renewal by Stuart Hall
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3749-the-hard-road-to-renewal

David Moscrop, Fighting Populism by Understanding Perceptions
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/january-2017/fighting-populism-by-understanding-perceptions/

Emma Jackson, What The Left Can Learn From the "Freedom Convoy" by Emma Jackson
https://breachmedia.ca/what-the-left-can-learn-from-the-freedom-convoy/

For a Left Populism by Chantal Mouffe
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3097-for-a-left-populism

Thank god it's over. The election has come and gone and 33% of Ontarians have spoken: we apparently forgot what the last two years have been like and decided we want more of the same -- plus a new highway, I guess. 

Steve and Tim do their best to recap the final day of the election and talk about what the left can do now.