“We need the CCPA to remind us that our dreams of a decent, egalitarian society are reasonable — indeed that with a little work, they are practical. And I love that practicality, that protection of the dream of the possible.”
— Naomi Klein
There are some eye-popping new factoids about Canadians coming out of today's release of labour census data by Statistics Canada.
Did you know that Canada has the fastest job growth in the entire G7?
Did you know Canada has the highest proportion of workers with a university or college degree among OECD nations? (60% of Canadians aged 25 to 64 have some form of post-secondary education).
Canadian women are also way more educated than Canadian men today: a third of women have a degree now, compared to quarter of men. A generation ago 16% of women in Canada held a degree, compared to 21% of men.
More than half of recent immigrants to Canada (those who arrived between 2001 and 2006) have a university degree. Compare that to 20% of Canadian born.
To sum up: Canada is attracting major job growth and Canadian workers are better educated than ever before. So why, given all this good news, is Canada's gap between the rich and the rest of us continuing to grow?
-- Armine Yalnizyan