The Tyee’s Crawford Kilian on What Will Save Us Now

The Tyee wrapped up its Three Things series with a reader favourite, Crawford Kilian. In addition to 40 years spent teaching at Capilano College, our contributing editor has written 21 books and hundreds of articles for The Tyee.

He’s also become our crystal ball.

More than two years ago, Kilian predicted that the current U.S. administration’s policies could lead to a pandemic. In addition, he wrote a sci-fi novel nearly half a century ago predicting the collapse of Artic ice sheets.

Neither were prophecies we wanted to see materialize, but under the circumstances, it seemed a relevant time to ask: What do you expect from a post-pandemic world?

In a nutshell, look to workers, women and greater equality, our esteemed oracle predicts. That begins with essential workers being recognized as what they are — essential.

“It’s one of the ironies of our society that the people who do the absolute essential work get paid the least possible amount,” he tells interviewer Emma Cooper, noting that everyone from babysitters to teachers and grocery store clerks should receive more recognition, higher incomes and greater job security.

“Let’s face it,” he adds, “we need them more than we need the hedge fund managers.”

With the most vulnerable at highest risk of getting sick, he says creating a more just society will lead to fewer disease outbreaks. Currently, it’s the countries with greatest inequality who are suffering the most.

“It’s the more egalitarian ones, like some of the ones in Europe, that are doing much better,” Kilian says. “Not everyone, but as a general rule it seems to be the case.”

When peering into the future, Kilian looks to the past, reflecting on what he describes as 40 years of entrenched neoliberalism. He says picking up where we left off in the 1950s and ’60s, when there was a stronger union movement and more even income distribution, would serve us well.

Politically, that means he doesn’t see much of a future for the U.S. Republican party, and same goes for Canada’s fiscal Conservatives: “The taxes will be higher. Government will be bigger. It will have to be,” he says.

And it’s going to take some really smart politicians to get us there, he adds, giving a shout out to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — it’s not the Boris Johnsons and Donald Trumps that are going to get us out of this mess.

“You’ve got a very generous supply of male egos in our politics now,” he says. “Women will certainly be a huge factor [moving forward].”

Kilian suggests North Americans “stop regarding our own bellybuttons” for a moment and look overseas to countries like Finland, Germany and New Zealand — countries with strong, female leadership — who are successfully battling the virus.

“They are by no means socialist nightmares. They’re exceedingly capitalist, if anything. But they involve capitalists who are realists and who know they’re not going to get away with simply screwing the workers every chance they get,” he says.

“That kind of growing up would do us a power of good, I think.”

In 1918, the Spanish flu killed many more times the number COVID-19 has killed in the past nine months. The difference? A strong government response: “We’re taking it more seriously than they took the Spanish flu in 1918,” he says. He points to the Liberal government’s quick pandemic response of ensuring a universal basic income as an example of how quickly governments can pivot when needed.

To wrap up, Kilian spoke about the republication of his 1978 book Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia, something he says he’s “over the moon” to see back in print. Watch for it in ebook and hardcover in late November from Douglas & McIntyre.

This was The Tyee’s last Three Things interview — for the time being, anyway. All were expertly conducted by Tyee outreach manager Emma Cooper. Kilian speaks for all of us when he says, “Bye bye. It’s been a delight.”