David Macdonald
About David Macdonald
David Macdonald is a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He joined the centre in 2011, although he has been a long time contributor as a research associate. Since 2008, he has coordinated the Alternative Federal Budget, which takes a fresh look at the federal budget from a progressive perspective. David has also written on a variety of topics, from Canada's real estate bubble to Aboriginal income inequality. He is a regular media commentator on national policy issues. He is the author of the report Picking up the Tab: A complete accounting of federal and provincial COVID-19 measures in 2020.
David received his BA from the University of Windsor and his MA from the University of Guelph, both in Philosophy.
Chaos of the fiscal update leaves us unprepared for the chaos of 2025
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provides an update on affordability measures for Atlantic and rural Canadians. The 2024 fiscal update figures for the coming year are in jeopardy, not because of the finance minister’s abrupt resignation, but because a massive 25 per cent U.S. tariff wall is looming. Photo: Prime Minister's Office
Budget 2024: Betting the farm on housing
Housing affordability is the issue, and solving it also solves inflation.
Will this federal budget address millennial and gen-X angst?
A federal budget that addresses young Canadians’ affordability challenges will likely have to focus on additional pocketbook issues, such as transit and post-secondary education.
For corporate profits, inflation is the gift that keeps on giving
Of every dollar spent on higher prices in the last two years, 47 cents were converted into corporate profits in four industries, led by mining, oil and gas extraction.
Cabinet shuffle in a troubled time
The federal government needs policies to create more affordable housing, better health care, more child-care spaces and measures to combat the climate crisis, writes economist David Macdonald. Can Trudeau's new cabinet deliver?
Whither the NDP-Liberal agreement?
This month’s budget could spell the end of such big-picture thinking that drove spending in the early stages of the pandemic.
Ottawa is flush with cash, short on political courage as recession looms
The federal government has lots of cash, but little political courage, writes David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The next session of Parliament could fix health care, slash emissions and tackle inequality. Will it rise to the challenge?
The fall session will be anything but boring and the federal government must take concrete steps to increase income security, writes David Macdonald.
If we have a recession, it will be one engineered on purpose
Perhaps it’s time to challenge the old orthodoxy because the Bank of Canada is unlikely to reach its target of two per cent inflation without causing a recession.
A Pearsonian moment? Not in this budget
The biggest extension to health care by far in this budget was a national dental care program. This went from obscurity to policy in a matter of months due to its inclusion in the Liberal-NDP agreement.