Tracy Smith-Carrier – The Conversation

Without substantive rights — real enforceable ones — and accountability, poverty and food insecurity rates will continue to be a problem for Canadians. (Unsplash)

October 14, 2025

Canada’s rising poverty and food insecurity have deep structural origins

Tracy Smith-Carrier, Royal Roads University

Though Canada, on paper, is committed to an adequate standard of living, it needs social and economic laws to become more enforceable.

To eradicate poverty, we need policy actions that address the root of financial hardship. A basic income does just that. (Shutterstock)

March 4, 2025

A basic income can be a strong investment in mental health

Tracy Smith-Carrier, Royal Roads University and Elaine Power, Queen's University, Ontario

Improving mental health through a basic income is a wise investment, one that will prevent the needless suffering of generations to come.

Focusing on supposed individual failings belies the structural and systemic problems that perpetuate poverty. (Shutterstock)

December 4, 2023

Implementing a basic income means overcoming myths about the ‘undeserving poor’

Tracy Smith-Carrier, Royal Roads University

Momentum on basic income is growing in Canada. However, pervasive myths about poverty are making implementing the idea challenging.

The gender pay gap for faculty in Canadian universities is significant and persistent. (Shutterstock)

June 9, 2022

Gender pay gap: It’s roughly half‑a‑million dollars for women professors across a lifetime

Marcie Penner, Western University and Tracy Smith-Carrier, Royal Roads University

Over the course of a career and retirement, gender pay gaps lead to a difference of roughly half-a-million dollars for women professors relative to their male counterparts.

Particularly during an economic crisis, graduating from university should not sentence students to a lifetime of debt. (Shutterstock)

October 18, 2020

Low funding for universities puts students at risk for cycles of poverty, especially in the wake of COVID‑19

Tracy Smith-Carrier, Western University

Canadians’ publicly funded post-secondary education system has been eroded over time, diminishing the promise it once held to protect people from poverty. We should demand change.

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