The Scandalous Rise of Inequality in Canada

Book excerpt: There are more billionaires than ever in Canada – and they are capturing an ever-growing share of the country’s wealth. Meanwhile 90% of Canadians are steadily losing ground. Understanding how and why this is happening has been the focus of a lifetime of research by economist LARS OSBERG. In this book, building on his earlier book The Age of Increasing Inequality, he describes how inequality has grown steadily over decades – but is now accelerating in the post-Covid world. The Trudeau government came to power promising action to make the rich pay a fairer share, and to reduce inequality. In office, they did virtually nothing and Canada’s rich are richer than ever. Other countries are finding effective ways to tackle inequality. International organizations are proposing innovative measures to prevent the wealthy from using tax havens, and to impose new taxes capturing wealth from billionaires and globe-spanning tax-avoiding multinationals like Apple and Microsoft. LARS OSBERG identifies measures that Canada can take so that the country’s wealth is shared more fairly, and the wealth of billionaires can be used to improve the lives of Canada’s 99%.