Critique of Free Trade and Worker-Centered Deals

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This week on 1Dime Radio, I sit down with Rob Ashton, a trade unionist and frontrunner for the Federal NDP (New Democratic Party) leadership race. I ask him all about his policy platform, what the NDP needs to do to win back the working-class majority. and the biggest issues facing Canadians right now. We get into Ashton’s labour-first strategy, his comprehensive labor reform, whether higher union density risks inflation, what “full employment” should mean, how to rebuild domestic industry without turning it into corporate welfare, and why he thinks the NDP can become a party of real worker power again.

Timestamps:

00:00:00  Intro

00:01:21  Why run for NDP leader as a non-career politician?

00:05:02  Why the NDP lost working-class support

00:11:46  Temporary Foreign Worker program, wage suppression, and migrant rights

00:19:07  How to make unionization easier, labour law reforms, union busting

00:32:13  Inflation, wages, and the “wage-price spiral” debate

00:34:33  Bank of Canada, full employment, and job guarantee talk

00:43:48  Free trade, protectionism, and rebuilding Canadian industry

00:49:13  “Pre-distribution” vs redistribution, what it means in plain language

01:00:49  Defence procurement, shipbuilding, and reindustrialization

01:04:20  Climate policy, nuclear, and a worker-centered transition

01:10:23  Alberta, energy jobs, tanker ban, and Indigenous consent

GUEST:

Rob Ashton, NDP leadership candidate, trade unionist (ILWU Canada)

• Rob’s campaign: https://robashton.ca/

• Meet Rob: https://robashton.ca/meet-rob/

• Rob Ashton on X: https://x.com/Rob_T_E_Ashton

• NDP leadership contestants page: https://leadership.ndp.ca/contestants

How to vote in the NDP leadership race

• Become an NDP member: https://act.ndp.ca/donate/membership-en

• Leadership 2026 hub: https://leadership.ndp.ca/

• Leadership FAQ and voting info: https://leadership.ndp.ca/faq

• Rules governing the leadership contest (official PDF): https://www.ndp.ca/sites/default/files/2026-leadershipgoverningrules.pdf

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