Tom Parkin

LATEST STORIES BY TOM PARKIN

PARKIN: Jagmeet Singh's big bet on tax fairness and infrastructure

Politics is always about contrasts. And now NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has signalled two important policy themes where his party will be boldly different than his Liberal and Conservative competitors — tax fairness and public infrastructure.

February 25, 2018 Columnists

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during the Federal NDP Convention in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018.

PARKIN: Monopolies may have an evil twin who’s stealing your paycheque

Monopoly. We’ve all played the old board game, we all understand the concept. A monopoly dominates the supply of a good or service. It’s a price-gouger.

February 20, 2018 Columnists

PARKIN: Philippines helicopter deal raises more questions about Trudeau’s human rights commitment

A $233 million deal to supply 16 Canadian-made helicopters to Philippines strongman Rodrigo Duterte may be dead after a human rights group intervened over concerns the Trudeau government may have tried to willfully ignore.

February 11, 2018 Columnists

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is mulling a ban on sending maids to Kuwait because of the physical and sexual abuse they endure.

PARKIN: Opportunities ahead for the NDP in Ontario

Last year, Canada’s most important election was in British Columbia, where Christy Clark and her tired and scandal-plagued Liberal government was replaced by John Horgan and his New Democrats.

February 4, 2018 Columnists

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath speaks to media in Sudbury on December 5, 2017. John Lappa/Sudbury Star/Postmedia Network

PARKIN: Workplace harassment can be prevented, but C-65 isn't enough

In the last months sexual harassment allegations have roiled the entertainment industry—and in the past few weeks, they have turned Canadian politics upside down.

January 29, 2018 Columnists

Orla Dean, 5, holds a placard during the Time's Up rally at Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street on Jan. 21, 2018 in London, England. The Time's Up Women's March marks the one year anniversary of the first Women's March in London and in 2018 it is inspired by the Time's Up movement against sexual abuse.

PARKIN: NDP outsider aims to pry open Ottawa's secret ways

Before she was elected, Ruth Ellen Brosseau sometimes worked three part-time jobs trying to keep afloat, provide for her son and pay back her student loans. But as she says, hard work for low pay is common in her Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinonge.

January 29, 2018 Columnists

New NDP House Leader Ruth Ellen Brosseau stands for a photo following caucus meetings in Ottawa on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

PARKIN: With TPP, Trudeau throws Ontario’s auto sector under the bus

Trade negotiations have become a confusing mash-up of abbreviations with an unclear list of countries.

January 24, 2018 Columnists

Jerry Dias, national president of UNIFOR, speaks to over 2000 members on strike at the Cami Automotive Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario on Sunday October 1, 2017.

PARKIN: If Denmark has no minimum wage laws, should Canada follow suit?

Canada is in the middle of a hot debate on minimum wages. Based on polls , a minimum wage hike is favoured by about two-to-one. Most say it’ll benefit the economy.

January 21, 2018 Columnists

A Happy Meal is displayed for a photograph on a tray at a McDonald's Corp. restaurant in Little Falls, New Jersey, U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012.

PARKIN: On minimum wage, low-wage advocates have been so wrong for too long

Judging from the first few days of 2018, Canadians are in no mood to be lectured by the CEOs and politicians who told us low wages, privatization and tax cuts would create prosperity.

January 14, 2018 Columnists

PARKIN: Canada's jobs news is good, but the party is already winding down

Friday’s economic headline was good news — Statistics Canada reported December unemployment fell to 5.7%. No doubt Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau will be popping corks and patting each other on the back.

January 8, 2018 Columnists

Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold copies of the federal budget on their way to the House of Commons in Ottawa, Wednesday, March 22, 2017.