Unifor holds a rally in Toronto opposing airport privatization, September 14, 2026. Photo courtesy Unifor/Facebook.

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” —Antonio Gramsci, 1930

These words were written by Marxist political theorist Antonio Gramsci during the post-First World War economic crisis to direct attention to the collapse of liberal-capitalist institutions and how this disintegration was creating conditions that gave rise to Italian fascism. The quote feels increasingly relevant to the situation in many countries, including Canada, where a growing polycrisis is widening income and wealth inequality, eroding employment security and working conditions, and deepening food and housing insecurity. These pressures threaten wellbeing while fuelling a right-wing populism marked by racism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism. Understanding how we got here, and how we might find a way out, is increasingly urgent.

As professors of health studies, parents of a young adult, and informed citizens, we live in three spheres. In our professional lives, we document the declining public policy environment and how it threatens the health of Canadians in general and marginalized populations in particular. The source of these problems is increasingly identified in the academic literature as neoliberal capitalism, or even capitalism itself. As parents, we are confronted with the employment and housing crises facing young people. As informed citizens, we are struck by the lack of attention paid to these problems by the mainstream media and dominant political parties.

This should come as no surprise: mainstream media largely run cover for the wealth and power of dominant groups, while dominant political parties have long served as handmaidens of capital. With stock markets at record highs, the economic system is working very well—just not for most Canadians. Indeed, the accounting firm MNP reports that in 2026, 45 percent of Canadians reported being $200 or less from insolvency. Narrowing the gap between these three spheres could enable a way towards a more hopeful future.

Having worked in the public policy realm over the last three decades, we are struck by the increasing attention being paid in the academic literature—much of it Canadian—to neoliberal capitalism or even capitalism itself as the source of our malaise. For example, in the volume How Politics Makes Us Sick: Neoliberal Epidemics (2025), Canadian Ted Schrecker and UK colleague Clare Bambra place the blame squarely at the feet of government authorities who have enthusiastically implemented the ideology of neoliberalism as a governing strategy.

Neoliberalism has these key components that reward the barons of finance and industry but are not so good for the average person: deregulation and withdrawal of government from managing the economy; privatization, where the ownership of hospitals, health care and other programs and services are taken out of public control and given over to profit-making entities; free trade and globalization, where multinational corporations control the organization and production of materials and goods; and austerity, where government spending........

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