Economics professor says evidence points to responsible use of basic income
Roderick Benns, publisher of Leaders and Legacies, recently interviewed Robin Boadway, a retired economics professor. Boadway studied economics at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He has his doctorate in economics from Queen’s University in Kingston.
Benns: How did you come to be involved in this issue?
Boadway: I spent my academic career as a public finance economist studying optimal policies for achieving a just and fair society, particularly with regard to those most in need. Naturally, guaranteed annual income is one important element of redistributive policies. I was especially influenced by economists like Anthony Atkinson and Amartya Sen for whom basic income was both fair and conducive to equality of opportunity. The views of philosopher John Rawls were also influential, particularly the idea that societal outcomes owe much to luck at birth, and those of us who are luckier than others owe it to the less fortunate to share in our luck. Having spent most of my life teaching and studying the importance of a basic income guarantee, the BIG group in Kingston offered an irresistible opportunity to have some practical effect.
Read moreProminent Conservative speaks out in favour of basic income pilots
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site
Retired Conservative Senator Michael Meighen says it’s time for governments to set up pilot projects across Canada to give a basic income guarantee a chance as future policy. In an interview with Leaders and Legacies in Toronto, Meighen says the idea is “very attractive on paper” so it will be important to follow this through with real-world testing.
“That’s where pilot projects come in – we have to test it,” says Meighen, who notes that if the pilots are successful, then the policy becomes easier to sell, politically.
Read moreCheaper to eliminate poverty than manage it, says Kingston woman
Roderick Benns, publisher of Leaders and Legacies, recently interviewed Tara Kainer, a long-time anti-poverty advocate, about basic income guarantee policy.
Tara Kainer grew up talking about social justice issues around the dinner table. In the 1950s, when she was a small child, her family lived in Tennessee where segregation was still in place and poverty, especially in the rural areas, was extreme.
Because her mother worked in the emergency department of a local hospital she often talked about the people who were turned away from medical services because they couldn’t pay. After leaving Tennessee they lived in Saskatchewan where the CCF government brought in Medicare before it was adopted by the federal government in 1966. Her parents were fervent supporters.
Read moreSaskatchewan Green leader believes basic income might occur after 2016
Roderick Benns from Leaders and Legacies recently interviewed Victor Lau, the leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, about basic income. Lau has been the leader of the Green Party since 2011. Saskatchewan goes to the polls April 4, 2016.
Benns: Do you run candidates in all ridings?
Lau: Yes! The Green Party of Saskatchewan ran our first full slate of 58 candidates in the previous general election in 2011. For 2016, our party finished nominating a full slate of 61 candidates (the provincial government added three more seats) by the summer of 2014. We are currently the only party in Saskatchewan to have finished nominating their entire slate of candidates. Even the Saskatchewan Party government has two more seats to go and the NDP has just over half of theirs done.
Benns: Are there any signs of electoral success on the horizon for any of your candidates?
Lau: The Green Party of Saskatchewan believes strongly that by being ready with a full slate of 61 candidates and an excellent platform for 2016 that our central messaging should carry us to victory in three to four seats or potentially even propel us into forming government (only 31 seats are needed to do so.)
Read moreIncome is for survival; income re-distribution is to create choice: Michael Clague
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site
Michael Clague grew up as a middle class boy in Vancouver, B.C. in the 1940s. He was fortunate, he says, because he never had to experience poverty firsthand. Given that his father was a school principal in an east Vancouver school, though, he did encounter a number of people who came from families with low incomes.
But it wasn’t until many years later, when he was appointed to the Special Senate Committee on Poverty, that Clague would realize the weight of poverty that existed for many. Chaired by Senator David Croll in 1968, the final report says it well:
Read moreAll three northern capital city mayors say it’s time to look at basic income
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site.
All three territorial mayors in Canada, representing the capital cities of the vast Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, say it’s time to look at basic income policy to address growing inequality.
The mayors’ three respective territories where they hail from cover about 40 percent of the geographic size of Canada. Echoing many of their southern big city counterparts, the mayors are calling for pilot projects to be set up to measure the effectiveness of a basic income guarantee.
Read moreWhitehorse mayor says basic income pilot projects the best way forward
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site.
The mayor of Whitehorse, Yukon, the recently re-elected Dan Curtis, says the challenges of northern living make investigating a basic income guarantee a viable idea.
Curtis says he “would love to see everyone in the middle class, but it’s challenging when there is so much work in the (lower paying) service industry,” even with people often working two or more jobs to make ends meet.
Curtis is the latest Canadian mayor to be interviewed by Leaders and Legacies, in order to gauge municipal level support for a basic income guarantee policy. A common definition of a basic income guarantee ensures everyone an income sufficient to meet basic needs and live with dignity, regardless of work status. It involves a regular, reliable distribution of money from government to people to help ensure total income sufficient to meet common, basic needs.
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