Richer and Poorer: The Structure of Inequality in Canada

Jeffrey J. Cormier is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Canadian society
at McGill University.

Without question the roots of social inequality are as complex as they
are numerous. This book, by two neo-Marxist sociologists, attempts to
bring class-based analysis back to the centre stage of studies in
stratification. Allahar and Cфté argue that the notion that Canada is
a classless liberal society is an elaborate myth that invariably masks a
far more sinister reality of widespread poverty and marginalized
underprivileged groups. While it may be true that Canada is one of the
best places to live, the authors maintain that it still has a long way
to go before it rectifies the many social injustices and inequalities
that so often go unnoticed.

Their analysis is strongest in the chapters on gender and youth
inequality. The latter topic was explored extensively in their earlier
work, Generation on Hold (1994), and the major recommendation of this
book—namely, that the hope for a more just Canada resides in the
young—was culled directly from it. Ironically, while the authors claim
to be combating the false ideologies of liberalism, individualism, and
consumerism with a solid materialist and structural analysis of Canadian
society, in many instances they rely on equally shaky ideological
assumptions about the nature of race and class relations.