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‘Enabling dissent’: Contesting austerity and right populism in Toronto, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Mark Thomas  and
Steven Tufts
Mark Thomas*
Affiliation:
York University, Canada
Steven Tufts
Affiliation:
York University, Canada
*
Mark Thomas, Department of Sociology, York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, ON M3J1P3, Canada. Email: mpthomas@yorku.ca
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Abstract

Following the 2008 financial crisis, austerity measures have been introduced in many national contexts to reorganise public sector work and redesign labour laws and labour policies. At the same time, right-populist discourses and movements have arisen in ways that give both legitimacy and voice to the politics of austerity. Toronto, Canada, provides a world-renowned case of populist experimentation at the metropolitan scale, as the actions of Mayor Rob Ford typified this nexus of austerity and populism. Set in the context of Ford’s term as Mayor of Toronto (2010–2014), this article asks how the combined rise of austerity and right populism creates both new challenges and new opportunities for public sector labour in urban spaces. We argue that public sector unions are central in both the making and unmaking of populist austerity and identify potential trajectories for organised labour in the face of the continuation of austerity-driven politics.

Keywords

H76J45J48J51AusterityCanadaneoliberal urbanismpopulismpublic sector unions
Type
Symposium Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 27 , Issue 1: Symposium: Public Service Employment Relations and Austerity: Challenges and Consequences , March 2016 , pp. 29 - 45
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2016

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