The Competition Cage Match (Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn weigh in)

Join the Policy Prompt crew for a different kind of episode: recorded with a live audience at Perfect Books in Ottawa, host Paul Samson interviews Denise Hearn (resident senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, author, applied researcher and adviser) and Vass Bednar (CIGI senior fellow, Public Policy Forum fellow and executive director of the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University) to discuss “kayfabe capitalism,” and why our nation’s competition policy leaves much to be desired. Listen to learn how Canada can promote competition, encourage citizen engagement and create a more level playing field. Denise and Vass’s book, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, is available now from Sutherland House Press.

Mentioned:

• Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians (Sutherland House Press, 2024)
• Competition Act RSC 1985, c C-34
• Perfect Books, 258A Elgin St., Ottawa

Further Reading: 

• Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar, “We live in the age of kayfabe capitalism” (The Globe and Mail, October 13, 2024)
• Vass Bednar, “In Canada, we bank where we buy” (The Globe and Mail, May 5, 2024)
• Jonathan Tepper and Denise Hearn, The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition (Wiley, 2018)

Show notes: 

• Vass Bednar’s Lately podcast with The Globe and Mail, centring on trends and key actors in business and tech
• Vass Bednar’s Substack, Regs to riches, a newsletter about start-ups and public policy
• Denise Hearn’s newsletter, Embodied Economics, focuses on today’s economic frameworks and financial structures through a nuanced lens

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

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Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at [e-mail].