Murray Dobbin
Murray Dobbin is an author, commentator and journalist. He is the author of five books and is a former columnist with Financial Post and Winnipeg Free Press. He is a board member of Canadians for Tax Fairness and on the advisory council of the Rideau Institute. He lives in Powell River, BC.
Stories by Murray Dobbin
Israel's Silent Allies Are Its Worst Enemy
Former PM notes 'signs of fascism,' but West ignores danger.
Faith in Big Trade Deals Keeps Crumbling
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of globalization?
Response to Tax Dodging by Rich Will Show Trudeau's True Colours
CRA ties to industry, special deals demand Liberal action.
Saudi Arms Deal Signals Mideast Betrayal
Trudeau's promised new approach looks much like Harper's policies.
NDP Now Has Chance to End 13 Years of Error
Convention a chance to forget pursuit of power and build a real movement.
If Mulcair Survives Next Week's Review, the NDP Is Doomed
New Democrats need to face the party's potential irrelevancy and find a new path.
Trudeau's Chance to Acknowledge the Libyan Catastrophe
Without recognizing this foreign policy failure, we will have learned nothing.
'Condemn' Canadians? What Would Dad Say, Justin?
Why gov't slamming Israel boycotters hurts Palestinians, Canadians, even Israelis.
Under the Influence? Big Alcohol's Sway Needs Sober Exam
We've drunk the Kool-aid when it comes to casual acceptance of booze's harms.
Trade Minister Needs to Break Out of Bureaucrat's Bubble on TPP
Deal's massive risks demand independent, government-funded assessments.
On TPP, Trudeau Must Think Like a Keynesian
Canadian people need a new deal, not transnational corporations.
Does Justin Trudeau Want Fair Elections or Not?
PM knows which reforms favour the middle and could blow Canada's chance at pro-rep.
'Canada Is Back?' Not Until Taxation Is Truly Fair
Libs' apparent willingness to chase corporate cheats only the first step.
Pacific Trade Deal Will Test Trudeau's Resolve
As chorus of critics sound alarm, this is PM's chance to show us he's listening.
Let's Help Canada's Newspapers Stop Embarrassing Themselves
In this post-Harper era, our democratic institutions must be fixed. Start with media.
Contemplating Post-Harper Healing
After 10 years, our democratic crisis calls for more than just electoral reform.
Rise Up, Precariat! Cheap Labour Is Over
New Morgan Stanley report issues warning to employers: underpay workers, and pay the price.
Stephen Harper's Refugee Conundrum
Why's the Conservative leader so slow to act on the crisis? Look at his old political base.
Canadians 'Ripped Off' by Drug Costs? No Kidding
While minister gripes about prescription drug bills, Tories ink costly corporate rights pacts.
Harper Is Right: This Election Is about Security Versus Risk
It's our nation's ruthless economic insecurity that Canadians must weigh.
We Are All (or Should Be) Greeks Now
Their 'No' vote splashes a spotlight on ugly austerity, and its powerful puppeteers.
Can You Trust Justin Trudeau?
His Liberals are past masters at breaking promises in order to please big banks.
With Vultures Circling, It's Time to Care about Medicare
Enfeebled by careless cuts and twisted treaties, our public system is under threat.
Free Trade Deals Put Profits over Public Interest
'Poison pill' strategy ties hands of future governments.
Is a Liberal and NDP Coalition Inevitable?
For Trudeau at least, it will only become harder to avoid. But will he ever smarten up?
Liberate the Bank of Canada, Intrepid Think Tank Urges
Canadians have been fleeced for billions, but no traction in media for complex banking case.
NDP Can Still Succeed in 2015 Federal Election
But only if party veers left, then makes some alliance with Liberals.
Downsize Democracy for 40 Years, Here's What You Get
New signs civilization is veering towards collapse.
Austerity or Prosperity? Canada's $626 Billion Question
That's what corporations hoard while Tories refuse to stimulate jobs.
Why Canada's Job Future Is Sinking like a Stone
Our business elites got all they wanted. Still they fail to invest, innovate and compete.
Four Prime Questions about Harper's Response to Ottawa Shooting
PM's moves at home and abroad demand closer scrutiny. Start here.
Harper's Foreign Policy Confirms Orwell's Insights
To sell a pointless war, foster 'protective stupidity' among citizens.
Why New Euro-Canada Treaty Is a Gift to Oil Firms
Climate change? CETA seems to be written to undermine policies that deal with the threat.
Work in the Age of Anxiety
Take back an economy rigged by elites to produce 'precarity' instead of stable jobs.
Can the NDP Challenge Harper on the Economy?
Mulcair's minimum wage pledge fits a powerful counter-narrative to Tory claims.
Can You Imagine? Toppling the Fossil Fuel Empire
Required: bold thinking to preserve civilization and a liveable planet.
Wynne's Win, and the Agony of Right-Wing Pundits
Bad voters! You failed to opt for communal suicide.
Who Needs $80 Billion? Starve Us Some More!
How zero political debate about government revenue is destroying Canada.
Stephen Harper's 'Strategic' Path to Ruin
From Enbridge to the Supreme Court, the PM's reckless side prevails.
Harper's (Un)Fair Elections Act Could Spark Voter Surge
Backlash swamped US Republicans who played similar game.
When It Comes to Political Ideas, How Big Is 'Big'?
Why NDP's yardstick doesn't match Murray Dobbin's.
Harper's Vote Grubbing Policy on Ukraine
Facing a complex crisis with no good guys, our foreign policy is self-servingly simplistic.
Has Big Oil Hijacked Democracy?
Canada's government spies on and harasses citizens who peacefully question petro-corporate aims.
Stephen Harper's Disservice to Israel
Pandering to Netanyahu's hardliners just raised risk for all in Middle East.
Canada's Slide into Sleaze with Harper as CEO
Or, the problem of running government like a business.
2014, the Year of Living Consciously
Buy less. Give five per cent of your earnings to others fostering change.
Left Needs Soul Searching
To make people care, craft a 'politics of meaning', a 'secular social justice.'
Harper and His Movement Were No Friends to Mandela
PM is white-washing Conservative party's apartheid-friendly roots.
Why Tories Are So Afraid of What Deloitte's Runia Might Testify
RCMP's email files place auditor's scope at centre of scandal storm.
Libya's Hell, Enabled by Canadian Humanitarians
Why 'responsibility to protect' is proving irresponsible.
Moving Beyond Our Obsession with Stephen Harper
Press now for a reinvigorated democracy after the fall of the Harperium.
Harper Trade Deals Selling off Canada's Democracy
What if provincial governments were as brave as the Hupacasath First Nation?
Unifor Could Shift Canadian Political Debate
'New kind of union' can educate citizens for election waged on fairer economy.
The Crisis of Extreme Capitalism
How Milton Friedman's ruthless agenda led to Edward Snowden's grim revelations.
Reinvent Progressive Politics, and Who Might Show Up?
Don't just run when elections happen. The task goes deeper and it's constant.
BC's Election Stunner: Five Lessons for the Left
Progressives across Canada need to heed what happened out West.
All Hail Justin, You Know, I Mean, Trudeau
The Liberals' new leader talks and thinks more like a boy king.
This Is What Democracy Could Look Like
Chavez took social progress seriously, and the Western capitalist elite demonized him for it.
Canada's Reckless Banks Inflate House Price Bubble
Time to rein them in, five years after taxpayers saved their assets.
Libya's Nightmarish Winter
If Western leaders knew chaos would follow the Arab Spring, why did they really want Gaddafi gone?
Brazeau, Harper and Idle No More
Scandal tells bigger story about cynical politics thwarting aboriginal hopes.
Make 2013 the Year of Canada's Democracy Coalition
If Liberal and NDP leaders aren't pressured to co-operate they'll enable another Harper majority.
The Power of Idle No More's Resurgent Radicalism
Fifty years of federal money defusing revolt look to be over.
Why Not Talk About Work?
The topic is critical to all. Which is why the powerful pretend it's not worth exploring.
Try and Stop Developing Crown Land? You're Sunk
FrontCounter BC's hair-tearing approach to locals opposing a private dock on Sunshine Coast.
Time for an Adult Conversation: Taxes
On the all important revenue question, right-leaning leaders treat us like children.
Why Are New Dems Trying to Be Liberals Lite?
That's the wrong way to build trust and defeat the Harper government.
Tax Cheaters, Give Us Back Our Money
What do evaders steal? Chances for others to have decent lives.
How Big Ideas Become Government Policy
From unthinkable to radical to acceptable to sensible to popular to policy.
Whose Liberals Will Justin Trudeau Lead?
Will he disavow the Chretien-Martin era that betrayed his father's vision?
Euro Treaty Would Give Harper More Power at Home
CETA will kill jobs, rob provinces of powers to steer own courses. Can it be stopped?
Driven to Dismantle Community
Bill C-38 barrels over belief in a healthy commons. How to wrest back the wheel.
Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
Rather than accept the accident of Harper's agenda, dream up one bigger, better.
Expect More from Your Government
Don't let 'surplus powerlessness' lead to apathy. To restore the Canada Harper unmade, try fair taxation.
Jim Flaherty's 'Bring on Recession' Budget
For this finance minister, the bottom line is dangerously political.
Mourning Mulcair's Win
Why many NDPers still need to be convinced of their new leader's orange stripes.
Is Harper Undermining Obama on Iran?
A prudent PM would help persuade Israel away from military action, not goad nuclear hysteria.
Dangerous Liaisons: Flaherty, Carney in Synch with Bank Lobbyists
Why is Canada taking stands that invite a new global financial catastrophe?
Time to Zip John Baird's Loose Lips
As if to embody the opposite of diplomacy, he fans hazardous flames in Middle East.
Bow Down Canadians, Corporations Are King
Harper's creed: 'Ask not what your economy can do for you, ask what you can do for your economy.'
Stephen Harper and the Big Oil Party of Canada
Now that petro interests reign supreme, even other corporate sectors lose their sway.
This Year, Put the Country Ahead of the Party
May I suggest a resolution for 2012? Defeat Stephen Harper's government.
It's the Economy, Dippers
In NDP leadership debate, Peggy Nash stakes out territory party needs to conquer.
Wake up and Listen to Occupiers
Their challenge to each of us is not to live in tents, but to resist, remake any way we can.
Harper's Plan to Dismantle Canada's Safety Nets
His social engineering aim is to privatize social services and leave the job to charities.
Remember the NDP Leadership Race?
As the Occupy movement outpaces the political process, I wonder if any of these candidates can turn anger into hope.
We're Seeing How Badly Harper Misread Canadians
Hudak's defeat and Occupy Bay Street are latest signs PM's politics aren't embraced.
Is Capitalism Preparing to Bury Itself?
Choke consumers' wages and you choke the economy. Why don't our leaders see that?
New Dems, Look to Libby Davies for Leadership Qualities
Can the NDP thrive after Jack? And save the country?
NDP Needs to Launch a Culture War
The party can grow by showing it's more in tune with Canadian values.
Letter from Powell River, Catalyst Town
The mill got its tax cut. Now it wants more public funds to handle the town's sewage.
Can NDP Help Restore Canada's Reputation?
Learn from Afghanistan, challenge Harper's unprincipled foreign policy.
Why Striking Postal Workers Deserve Support
This is about a crucial, wider fight for income equality and collective bargaining rights.
Harper's Goal: Create a New Irrational Reality
As PM re-engineers Canadian society, he never lets facts get in the way.
Will Libyans See Us as Saviours?
What sort of 'democracy' will we help promote there? Our record is lousy.
Now What for Canada's Left?
Progressives must invest more thought, energy and, yes, money in their vision for this nation.
Layton's Surge and the Intentional Citizen
Most Canadians' values long have aligned with New Democrats. Is this an ah ha! moment?
Our Wounded Democracy
Citizens would rather shop, making them vulnerable to manipulation by politicians without scruples.
Contemplating the Unthinkable Harper Majority
A vote for the Tories this time could mean the end of Canada as we know it.
Why Can't Politicians Talk about What's Real?
Looking at a federal election, and its parallel universe of life and death unmentionables.
Fresh Issue for Spring Election: Democracy
Harper is increasingly vulnerable, and Layton's NDP is best situated to benefit.
Harper, Autocrat
His government 'doctored' a document to get its way and punish enemies. Why should we be surprised?
How Layton Can Convert His Popularity into Votes
The NDP leader rates highest, and needs to put a clear proposition to Canadians.
The CEO and the New Feudalism
Typical leader of a top 100 firm makes in three days what average worker must toil a year to earn.
Harper's Pipeline Nightmare
The PM backs the Enbridge plan to pipe tar sands crude to the BC coast. But the politics are ugly.
Postscript on the New McCarthyism
Stephen Harper is succeeding in his efforts to make it a crime to criticize Israel.
That Gap between Rich and Poor Is a Baby Killer
The deadly, unforeseen consequences of Canada's widening inequality.
Citizen Psychopaths
Who put us in this mess? Those 'natural persons' otherwise know as corporations.
This is the Security State Steve Built
Why the Tories keep whipping up fear of terrorists, criminals and peaceful protestors.
A Coalition: Still the Only Way Out
Harper survived a stretch of stumbles because Grits and New Dems let him.
Reckless and Ruinous: Harper's Economics
He ties us to stumbling US, pulls plug on stimulus, rolls dice on tar sands folly.
Don't Give Canada a Security Council Seat
Despite the PM's high-minded rhetoric, we haven't earned the spot.
The Fight of Our Lives
Why halting Canada's march towards tar sands petro-state must be our first priority.
Harper's G20 Victory: Shrinking Canada
PM's purpose always has been to slash the social democratic state, even if it spurs a recession.
Asbestos: Quebec Labour's Shame
Why are that province's union leaders defending this killer export by Canada?
Fire the Managers
Enough with running Canada 'like a business.' We need leaders with hearts and vision.
Bill C-9 and the Coalition Imperative
Britain's new leaders have paved the way for what Ignatieff must do now.
Harper's Christian Right Wing
The PM is fomenting a culture war, but his opponents barely seem to realize it.
Four Ways Canada's Democracy Crisis Is Deepening
The way back is for a Liberal and New Dem coalition to promise proportional representation.
Obama's Nightmare in Middle East
Relations with Israel strain as threat of war with Iran looms. US must redefine its interests.
Israel's Apartheid
Blacks in South Africa never faced a 20-foot wall dividing their communities. Palestinians' land is still being seized, their orchards bulldozed.
The Rich are Canadians, Too
But they've stopped acting like it, which is why it's time for tax laws to make them pay their share.
Canada's Sudden Democracy Movement
Can the NDP and the traditional left catch up with this spontaneous uprising?
First Prorogue, then Eviscerate
Harper's agenda has a simple goal: destroy the Canadian social safety net.
Harper Rolls over Soft Foes
Ignatieff's Liberals and Layton's NDP cede ground by seeming to be wishy-washy.
Criticizing Israel Isn't Antisemitism
But a new coalition of MPs seems to say the two are one and the same.
Karzai's Afghanistan, Last Nail in the West's Coffin
The most powerful empire in history proves to be dumb as a bag of hammers.
Why Canada's Housing Bubble Will Burst
'The largest sub-prime lender in the world is now the Canadian government.'
Victory over Proven Killer
How a campaign for justice and worker safety defeated Canada's powerful asbestos industry.
Canada Must Forge Its Own Economic Fate
The SPP is dead. Good. That helps reduce dependence on a downbound US.
Stephen Harper, Unfit to Govern
Few are thrilled to have another election, but we must put it to good use.
Afghan Election's Outcome Doesn't Matter
Why? Because US has thwarted, not supported, democracy there.
Why Flaherty Loves His $50 Billion Deficit
After creating it with tax cuts, he has an excuse to slash government.
'Very Big Teeth' Threaten Campbell's Green Ambitions
TILMA trade agreement would penalize his plans.
Liberal Corruption, beyond the Sponsorship Scandal
If 'perversion of its original state' is the definition, here are examples.
Sterile Seeds, Canada's Impotence
Why was Africa's 'Father of Biosafety' hassled at our nation's gates?
Why Conservatives Should Thank Chuck Cadman
He saved them from a doomed election led by hard right Harper.
Time to Tame Corporate Power
Global CEOs are unclear on the concept of government. They think it’s their support staff.
'Pro-Canadian' Means Much More than 'Anti-American'
Embracing Canadian values goes way beyond resenting our neighbours.
'For Our Own Good, Give Canada Away'
The 'deep integrationists' plan one happy continent, but we must teach the little ones.
Martin's Pants Appear on Fire
The PM's been asked again and again about how he runs his shipping firm. Why does he keep mangling the sad facts?
The Man Who Walks with Dinosaurs
The return of Stockwell Day, who now implies that people with AIDS deserve no sympathy.
Is Canada's Elite at War with its Citizens?
While expert 'realists' tell us to play nice with U.S. global aims, Canadians see a 'rogue' next door.
Is Canada's Elite at War with Citizens?
While expert 'realists' tell us to play nice with U.S. global aims, Canadians see a 'rogue' next door.
Paul Martin's democratic deficit
While the new PM promises to empower MPs, his record as finance minister and a leadership candidate shows profound disregard for democratic process
Martin's Slippery Speech
Yesterday's address was full of vague gestures at problems the PM helped create in the first place.
All Hail the Alienator!
Paul Martin says he wants to deal with B.C. alienation. Unfortunately, he's been a significant cause of it.
