Alberta Advantage Podcast

Team Advantage joins forces with Team Unmaking Saskatchewan to dig into just what is wrong with our provincial wings of the New Democratic Party. The liberal outsider in Nenshi and the establishment backed pragmatist in Beck both seem allergic to doing politics. Are left populism and robust social democratic policy impossible here, or is there another path these parties could take. Resources: From Left to Right: Saskatchewan's Political and Economic Transformation by Dale Eisler Who is the NDP for? by Haseena Manek "My quality of life has been compromised": U of S study finds STC closure has had a devastating impact on Saskatchewan people by Sara Birrell Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences by Anton Jäger Related Episodes: Vote No! Calgary's Olympic Bid, Which Is Class War The Fall of Saskatchewan: The Sask Party Under Brad Wall

In 2024 university campuses across Canada saw encampments and other protest actions. In a new book and podcast series Dr. Roberta Lexier places these actions within the broader history of student activism in Canada since the 1960s. In this discussion we ask her how student activism differes between Québec and the rest of Canada, how radical praxis can be maintained in a rapidly turning over student population, how student activism intersects with off-campus politics and when and why the state responds with violent force. Follow Dr. Lexier at @robertalexier.bsky.social and check out her work here: Book - Student Power: Canadian Student Movements From the Sixties to Today Podcast - Student Power: A Canadian Student Movement History Podcast

Alberta's teachers have been ordered back to work, and their right to strike, collectively bargain, or even present a legal challenge have been stripped away by Danielle Smith's UCP. How is organized labour in Alberta responding to this existential threat? Previous episodes on public education: "Balance" in Climate Change, Cursive Writing: Alberta's Curriculum Review When Public Isn't Public: Education in Alberta Previous episodes on trade unions and collective bargaining: Canada's Hot Union Summer: what comes next? Canadian vs U.S. Unions Watch the entirety of the AFL's October 29 response to Bill 2. Read Gil McGowan's feedback on Roberta Lexier's presentation about the need to organize towards a general strike: https://x.com/gilmcgowan/status/1681761153826033666 Further reading: Back to School - Notwithstanding the Charter Amnesty International Canada condemns Alberta government's use of Notwithstanding clause in Bill 2 From Consent to Coercion: The Continuing Assault on Labour No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (book) Jane McAlevey: The Only Way to Win Is to Strike

Every century or so the Canadian left gathers at the Royal Canadian Legion #1 in downtown Calgary to inagurate a new era of progress. In 1932 it was J.S. Woodworth and the gang in 1932 at the founding of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (which would become the NDP). On July 13, 2025 it was Team Advantage, Shama Rangwala, André Goulet, Roberta Lexier and Rob Rousseau. This live recording begins with a discussion of what the Progressive Publics symposium is all about before saying goodbye to the NDP with a brief history. Then the team discusses the possibilities of a socialist project to come. With live heckling from the audience! (Mostly Jeremy Appel.)

Join our live show Friday June 13 6PM - Royal Canadian Legion #1, 116 7 Ave SE, Calgary - Free Entry - Register here! Public sector pensions are one of the hard-won victories of the 20th century labour movement, but they did not come through the neoliberal era unchanged. They are now managed like any other investment fund and are implicated in all the faults of global capital. Union researcher Tom Fraser joins Team Advantage to discuss the political economy of pension funds and the forgotten horizons of revolutionary possibility they once represented.Check out Tom's new book - Invested in Crisis: Public Sector Pensions Against the Future Other works mentioned by Tom: Maple Revolutionaries - The Economist The North will rise again: pensions, politics and power in the 1980s - Jeremy Rifkin Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism - Quinn Slobodian Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of imperialism - Kwame Nkrumah Related Advantage Episodes: Kenney's Great Albertan Pension Robbery

WARNING: This episode begins with slam poetry. Team Advantage subjects themselves to some favourite books of UCP ministers and Western Standard columnists in search of the intellectual basis for justifying an independent Albertan nation. We find bad poetry, absurd race science, and convenient economic motivations. We contend that there is a long-standing nationalist rhetorical tradition in this province, place this tradition within a broader history of nationalism, seek out it's through-lines and examine how such rhetoric spreads out from the writings of right-wing cranks and enters more mainstream discourse. Primary Sources Canada and Her Colonies by Alwyn Bramley-Moore The Unfinished Revolt by John Bar and Owen Anderson Mavericks by Aretha Van Herk Secondary Sources Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson Nations and Nationalism since 1780 by Eric Hobsbawm Liberalism: A Counter-History by Domenico Losurdo Of Passionate Intensity by Trevor Harrison Dreamscapes of Modernity by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim Land as Pedagogy by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Support this podcast!

It's election season in Bubble City, the ultra-protected enclave that keeps the rich safe from the mutants of the so-called Uninhabited Zone. When veteran officer Swamp Cop embarks on a dangerous undercover mission, politics just might wind up coming between him and his beloved partner, Officer Schitt. Team Advantage chats with Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson, authors of Justice Warriors Vol. 2: Vote Harder, and discusses the quaint features of placid Canadian life. Follow Matt Bors on Twitter @mattbors and BlueSky @mattbors.bsky.social Follow Ben Clarkson on Twitter @benclarkson and Bluesky @benclarkson.bsky.social Purchase Justice Warriors: Vote Harder direct from Matt's webstore or wherever fine books are sold.

The 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been on a nationwide strike since November 15th after negotiations at the bargaining table stalled with their employer Canada Post. Workers are fighting to protect pensions, improve working conditions, and a wage increase that keeps pace with inflation. As CUPW enters its second week on strike, Team Advantage goes to the picket line to hear what striking workers have to say. Recorded on Wednesday, November 20th, 2024 in Calgary. Support your local CUPW picket line! Support the Duncan Kinney Legal Defense Fund

Gaza solidarity encampments on university campuses in the U.S. and Canada are experiencing violent police crackdowns. How do the student movements of the past inform what's going on now? Team Advantage digs into the history of student radicalism and speaks to encampment supporters about their experiences with police.

Israel is on a genocidal rampage through Gaza. Team Advantage, joined by intrepid independent journalist Jeremy Appel, examine the historical roots and basic assumptions that underlie Zionism, and discuss a few light topics, like discourse-policing, denouncing Hamas, antisemitism, and settler-colonialism.

The area burned by wildfires in Canada this year exceeded 18 million hectares and burned 1,740 megatonnes of CO2, roughly three times Canada's human-made emissions from 2022. As fire season winds down, Team Advantage examines this new, fun, half-year-long weather phenomenon, and considers the role of fossil fuels and the end of "cheap nature." Further reading: John Vaillant - Fire Weather Edward Struzik - Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future Alex Callinicos - The New Age of Catastrophe Jason Moore - Capitalism in the Web of Life

Support this podcast! What link is there between pushing Indigenous people off land, into reserves, into residential schools, and into forced treatment? How are conversations about "public safety" and policing being mobilized to harm vulnerable people? How has the politicization of the opioid epidemic obscured what's needed to address increasing drug poisoning deaths? Harm reduction advocate Euan Thomson joins Team Advantage to discuss the realities of Alberta's drug poisoning crisis. Follow Euan @elsthomson and subscribe to his Drug Data Decoded newsletter. Listen to our 2020 episode on this topic with Garth Mullins and Jeremy Appel. Mentioned in this episode is Dustin Godfrey's video essay "Is Vancouver Dying? A definitely non-exhaustive review." Also mentioned is a recent B.C. Federation of Labour resolution to lobby the B.C. government for safe supply.

A group known as Take Back Alberta appears to have seized control over sizable parts of the United Conservative Party and secured the leadership of Danielle Smith. What is this group? What motivates them, and who are their key figures? PressProgress writer Stephen Magusiak joins Team Advantage to discuss his recent piece, Who Is 'Take Back Alberta' and What Do They Really Want? Follow Stephen at @magusiak, PressProgress at @PressProgress, and sign up for the ShiftWork newsletter. Further reading: Take Back Alberta movement is gaining ground in the UCP, and some in the party are worried - Carrie Tait, Globe & Mai