Staff

Trish Hennessy, Director

Trish Hennessy is a former journalist who, as director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' income inequality project, specializes in the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us. Trish has a B.A. in Sociology from Queen's University, a B.S.W. from Carleton University, and a Master's degree in Sociology from OISE/University of Toronto.

Hugh Mackenzie, Researcher / Spokesperson

Hugh Mackenzie is principal in an economic consulting business, Hugh Mackenzie and Associates, based in Toronto. In that capacity, he conducts research projects on economic and public policy and provides specialized support to unions and employee organizations in collective bargaining. He has worked for over 35 years in a variety of capacities related to public policy development in the trade union movement, the private sector, and at all three levels of government.

He is presently part of a team at the CCPA conducting a series of research studies on income and wealth inequality in Canada and its consequences. He is Co-Chair of the Ontario Alternative Budget and the author of an annual in-depth review of the funding of elementary and secondary education in Ontario. He has also written frequently on issues related to funding and tuition for postsecondary education.

Prior to establishing his consulting business, he served as Research Director in the Canadian National Office of the United Steelworkers. From 1991 to 1994, Mr. Mackenzie was Executive Director of the Ontario Fair Tax Commission. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and holds a Masters degree in economics (public finance) from the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist

Armine Yalnizyan joined the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives as senior economist in 2008, after a long association dating back to 1993. Armine is a founding and regular contributor to the Globe and Mail’s online business feature, Economy Lab.  She has a twice-weekly business column on CBC Radio's number one morning show, Metro Morning, reaching a million listeners in the Greater Toronto Area.  Armine also appears every Thursday on the Big Picture Panel, a popular weekly feature of Canada's premier business-news program, CBC-TV's Lang and O'Leary Exchange.

Armine obtained her M.A. in Industrial Relations from University of Toronto. She has a bi-lingual B.A. in economics from Glendon College, York University, which included a year of economics at Université de Bordeaux, France.

She serves on the boards of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research's Institute of Population and Public Health, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, and the Canadian Association for Business Economics.