Growing Gap

The CCPA was pleased to co-sponsor a three-city lecture tour featuring Richard Wilkinson, co-author of the best selling book The Spirit Level, which examines income inequality among developed nations. During his sold-out stop in Toronto, he sat down with the CCPA's Trish Hennessy to talk about the book. Click here to watch.

The CCPA was pleased to co-sponsor a three-city lecture tour featuring Richard Wilkinson, co-author of the best selling book The Spirit Level, which examines income inequality among developed nations. During his stop in Toronto, he sat down with the CCPA's Trish Hennessy to talk about the book.

Important new research by David Hulchanski shows Toronto is becoming a city of stark economic extremes as its middle class is hollowed out and replaced by a bipolar city of the rich and poor – one whose lines are drawn neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Read the story here.

Jonathan Kay, managing editor of the National Post's Comment section, read Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks' book The Trouble With Billionaires and came away convinced that income inequality is a "real problem" worthy of public debate in Canada. The book argues extreme income inequality can destabilize whole economies and offers solutions to fix the problem. Kay writes: "I was surprised how reasonable I found many of the arguments in this book—a symptom, I suppose, of my own shaken faith in laissez-faire mantras in the wake of the 2008 crash and recession." Read his thoughtful review of the book in the latest edition of The Literary Review of Canada.

Toronto Star columnist Carol Goar weighs in on worsening income inequality in Canada, pointing to CCPA research, saying there is "dawning recognition" that it's a problem. She writes: "The stirrings of a national debate are there, if there’s a leader who can speak for the slipping majority." Read her column here.

A new UNICEF report looks at 24 OECD countries and rates Canada poorly on children's material well-being, which includes housing and family income. We're #17 out of 24 countries. The report says “Canada should address income inequality by promoting fairly paid and highly skilled employment and through sufficient and fairly distributed benefits and taxation.” Read the Toronto Star story about the report here  or download the report here.

A major report by CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan shows Canada's richest 1% enjoy more of the gains from economic growth than ever before in recorded history.

The report looks at income trends over the past 90 years, revealing the richest 1% took 32% of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007 -- the biggest piece of action any generation of Canadians has taken.

You have to go all the way back to the 1920s to find a similar trend, and even then, the richest 1% didn't take so large a share of income. Read the report here.

How will Canada’s elite react to the latest numbers?  Read more on Armine Yalnizyan’s latest blog on the Globe and Mail Report on Business site.

Ed Broadbent, one of Canada’s most respected progressive sages, sat down with the CCPA’s Trish Hennessy to talk about the Canada he grew up in and how it’s changed over his lifetime. During this candid conversation -- in Mr. Broadbent’s own Ottawa backyard -- he reflects on the profound shift away from equality.

When he was growing up, he says, “the name of the game was to have more and more equality.” It was an unstated assumption, and it was accepted by all the leaders of the main political parties when he was first elected to Parliament. Since then, he says: “We’ve had a terrible assault on democratic equality. Equality has, since the Greeks, been the key value associated with democracy.”