Posts by Seth Klein
About Seth Klein
Seth Klein is a CCPA-BC research associate and the former CCPA-BC Director. His research deals primarily with welfare policy, poverty, inequality and economic security. A social activist for over 30 years and a former teacher, Seth holds a BA in international relations, a BEd from the University of Toronto and an MA in political science from Simon Fraser University.
Seth is an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program and the former BC director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. His book A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency is now available.
Seth is also a past co-chair of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, an advisory board member for the Columbia Institute’s Centre for Civic Governance, and an advisor and instructor for Next Up, a leadership program for young people committed to social and environmental justice.
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Oct 6, 2015
Congratulations to the Pembina Institute on a poll they conducted with EKOS Research, assessing support for climate action among Albertans. The results are fascinating and hopeful. You can find the full results here, and a good postmedia summary here. But a few highlights: A large majority of respondents (70%) support investing in renewable energy sources…
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Oct 2, 2015
The NDP, Liberals, Conservatives and Greens are now all proposing to cut the small business tax rate from 11% to 9% (albeit on slightly differing timelines), an unnecessary and unwise policy, as outlined in previous CCPA posts. It may make for good politics, but it’s a policy with no economic merit. It’s not all bad…
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Sep 18, 2015
My recent post comparing the NDP and Liberal election positions to date drew some criticism for leaving out the Green Party. So hoping to rectify that with this post on what I see as some strengths and weaknesses of the Green plan. On Sept. 9, The Green Party became the first of the major parties…
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Sep 17, 2015
Tuesday Sept. 15 saw the release of an exciting new document – The Leap Manifesto: A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another. In essence, the manifesto is a positive vision for Canada. It calls upon the next government to move Canada off fossil fuels quickly, insisting that baby…
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Sep 7, 2015
by Seth Klein and Tyson Schoeber It’s been a year since the longest strike in the history of BC’s public school system. A key outcome of that dispute was increased understanding of the phrase “class size and composition.” During the strike, the public came to appreciate that teachers were fighting not just for better wages,…
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Sep 2, 2015
I’m often asked which opposition party, with a potential to win the election, has the better platform when it comes to tackling climate change and inequality – the two great inconvenient truths of our time, and the focus of much of our work at CCPA. (I’m leaving out from this comparison the Conservatives, who have thus…
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Aug 13, 2015
Far be it from me to school the Prime Minister on the laws of supply and demand. He is, after all, the one who has extensively studied neo-liberal economics. But the Conservatives’ plan to increase what first-time homebuyers can pull from their RRSPs for a down payment – from a maximum of $25K to $35K…
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Aug 12, 2015
“As leaders we have a responsibility to fully articulate the risks our people face. If the politics are not favorable to speaking truthfully, then clearly we must devote more energy to changing the politics.” – Marlene Moses, Ambassador to the United Nations for the South Pacific island nation of Nauru, 2012 “The ecologically necessary is…
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Apr 15, 2015
Last week, federal finance minister Joe Oliver re-affirmed that his government seeks to double the annual limit to Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), from $5,500 to $11,000. This is a terrible idea. When the TFSA was first introduced, the claim at the time was that the policy was intended to support modest income people wanting to…
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Apr 11, 2015
Ah, here we go again – when seeking to assert credibility as sound fiscal managers, governments reach for the tired gimmick of “balanced budget legislation” (BBL). It’s not about good economics. Nor about good public policy. Just crass politics. And now the federal government is once again dangling this useless policy ploy. The CCPA-BC was…
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