As Canada confronts U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff and other threats to our economy, much of the discussion has focused on protecting jobs, maintaining competitiveness and ensuring that Canadian workers can withstand another period of serious disruption.

Labour Day offers an opportunity to ask: what kind of jobs, economy and working lives are we trying to protect?

For generations, workers have fought to shorten the working day. Just as the six-day, 72-hour workweek seemed natural a century ago, the five-day 40-hour workweek seems like an immutable fact of life today. But it is far from that.

The eight-hour day was based on a simple proposition: human beings should not have to spend most of their waking lives at work to earn a living. They should also have time to raise children, participate in communities, rest, educate themselves and enjoy life beyond the workplace.

Gig-work delivery jobs are getting more dangerous Caregiving is Canada’s invisible infrastructure. It’s time employers plan for it Canada’s labour protections aren’t ready for the age of AI

Gig-work delivery jobs are getting more dangerous

Caregiving is Canada’s invisible infrastructure. It’s time employers plan for it

Canada’s labour protections aren’t ready for the age of AI

The standard 40-hour workweek and eight-hour working day emerged from the particular political struggles and economic conditions of the two previous centuries. It was institutionalized through labour law and collective bargaining because workers organized to make it happen.

But there is no economic law that says eight hours a day, five days a week, is the appropriate amount of labour for a human being. 

In fact, the apparent universality of this post-Second World War standard masks how labour protections across Canada actually........

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