With a federal election on the horizon, economic policy is once again taking centre stage. Yet missing from the national debate is a serious reckoning with the failures of neoliberalism and the urgent need for alternatives.
A continued adherence to neoliberal policy, and the fiscal austerity it entails, risks deepening social divides and strengthening the electoral prospects of the far right (absent a compelling populist left). To meet today’s challenges, parties must explore more progressive schools of economic thought like modern monetary theory.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney, with his experience across banking and global finance, is one figure who could potentially steer that shift. Carney’s career, spanning Goldman Sachs, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England and Brookfield Asset Management, has exemplified his competence within the bounds of economic orthodoxy.
