Neoliberalism – free market capitalism and the view that “freedom” is society’s highest value – has become embedded in the fabric of Canadian government and society.

Neoliberal theorists, marginalized for decades after the Second World War, saw their ideas embraced by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, who implemented their policies in the 1980s and 90s. Neoliberalism arrived in Ottawa with the Mulroney government in 1984, and has continued as widely accepted common sense about government until today.

Neoliberalism’s basic tenets – reduce public services in favour of privatization, cut taxes to benefit business, demonize government deficits, limit government regulation and enable corporations to self-regulate – continue to be promoted by its corporate champions and think tank advocates.

Yet the experiences of the last decade in Canada and internationally have demonstrated the emptiness of neoliberalism and demonstrated the crucial role government plays in society. Challenges – from financial market crises to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change – underscore how vital government action can be in our lives.

Alex Himelfarb offers proposals about how Canada can break free from this destructive set of ideas about how the world should work.

Alex Himelfarb is the director of the Glendon School of Public and International Aff airs and the Centre for Global Challenges at York University. A federal public servant for twenty-eight years before his retirement in 2009, he served as Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet for three prime ministers, as Canada’s Ambassador to Italy, as Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, and in senior positions in numerous ministries and agencies. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and holds several domestic and international honours, including an Honourary Doctor of Law from Memorial University. He has published numerous books and articles on various aspects of Canadian society.

Jordan Himelfarb is an opinion editor at The Toronto Star. Previously he was the editor of The Mark and the Arts and Ideas editor of This Magazine. His writing has appeared in many of Canada’s foremost newspapers and magazines. He is also co-editor of the music website Said the Gramophone, one of Time Magazine’s top blogs of 2009.

Alex Himelfarb's profile page

"To describe Breaking Free of Neoliberalism, as a must-read for those seeking to understand the political forces dominating our society— is an understatement. It’s a masterpiece.

Himelfarb takes the reader on a journey from neoliberalism’s intellectual foundations during WW2; its development shaped by corporate-funded think tanks; its ascendance in the early 1980s, and its dominance as a political order—with various mutations—to the present day.

Neoliberalism’s tool kit —which includes deregulation, privatization, austerity, tax cuts for the wealthy, an acquiescent public sector beholden to corporate priorities—has infected our beliefs about whether alternatives are even possible.

An urgent warning of the consequences we face in a world of extreme inequality, fossil-fuelled climate crisis, conflict, growing authoritarianism, Himelfarb considers how we might break free of its grip. How citizens can rediscover their collective power to confront our challenges and create a progressive alternative and robust democracy.

Breaking Free is especially timely with high stakes elections on the horizon."

---- Bruce Campbell, Former Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

"Here at long last is a Gramscian telling of Canada’s 50-year history with neoliberalism and its zombie ideas that refuse to die. And Alex Himelfarb, a deep and insightful thinker with front-row experience making transformational change in the federal public service, is the ideal person to tell it. This book is a captivating account of the battle of ideas, drawing on the international context but with special application to Canada. Himelfarb warns us against the false promises of politicians offering “common sense solutions.” It is no fun living in the interregnum of the present – in the morbid space between the dying old world and the birth of the new. But Himelfarb urges us not to lose faith in our collective capacity, nor to let the legacy of neoliberalism sap our imagination and ambition for how to do great things together. "

–Seth Klein, author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, and team lead with the Climate Emergency Unit and Founding Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ BC Office.