Colette Murphy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Atkinson Foundation.

By now you will have seen signs that Atkinson is upping its contribution to the fight for decent work. We’ve been in it for a long time now. More than eighty years. So, we know the weight needed to tip the scale toward justice. 

Change is possible when at least 3.5 % of the population is engaged. That’s the rule of thumb anyway. I can’t think of another time when true public engagement has been harder or at greater risk of underfunding. That’s why we’re sharpening a few of the tools a foundation can use to help rebalance things and sustain collective effort on behalf of workers who earn the least.

The Good Fight Prize began in 2017 as a relatively quiet way to mark a milestone anniversary, a gesture of appreciation for the persistence and progress of decent work organizers. Every five years, we wanted to lift up broadly-based community campaigns motivated by the belief that everyone deserves and can have decent work.

These campaigns, and the people behind them, are in the news but rarely in the spotlight. Most of Canada’s prizes and honours celebrate individual leadership. But we’re inspired by the groups that applaud all of us for donating, volunteering, signing a petition, joining a boycott, modeling a fairer way of working, and more—especially because many of these groups are led by people who have direct experience of the issues they’re trying to solve.

Eight years later, we knew a more powerful spotlight was needed. That’s why we called Target Marketing & Communications, a brilliant, one-of-a-kind ad agency based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Target is best known for the transformative repositioning of the Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism brand, widely regarded as the most successful and most awarded destination marketing campaign in Canada. Natural-born storytellers, they bring humanity and authenticity to everything they do. I think they get Atkinson and the cause of decent work because they love people—and the places all of us call home—as much as we do. Founder Noel O’Dea says more about our collaboration in this recent press release.

Thanks to Target, the Good Fight Prize has been reborn as an annual, juried award with the potential to reach and influence a much bigger audience. This 60-second manifesto video tells you why the Atkinson Foundation fights for decent work. A series of eight full-page colour ads in the Toronto Star, and content created for digital media, invites you to join us. Anyone can nominate a campaign. A jury of six decides which one will receive $50K and two that will receive $15K each. The three finalists will be revealed on November 12, and the winner announced on November 26.

Increasing public awareness and engagement is something we’ve decided to do year-round, culminating in a prize announcement every November going forward. This decision came after Atkinson’s Board and staff completed a rigorous year-long strategic priority renewal process. You can read a top-line summary of our organizational strategy for 2025 to 2035 on our website.

An unplanned outcome of this process was hope. Not a sunny, optimistic hope that everything will be fine. Rather, a grounded hope created by active engagement with uncertainty and moral choices. The kind of hope bequeathed by ancestors and paid forward. A hope that insists we can do better.

I’m talking about the hope that gives rise to shared national visions. This quote is from a Toronto Star editorial written by Joseph Atkinson in 1909—five years before Canada would be embroiled in World War I, and thirty years before a second world war would deploy all remaining resources in a fight against fascism:

“People do not exist for the purpose of glorifying nations, empires, political parties, and other institutions. All these institutions exist for the bettering of the condition of humanity, and can justify their existence only to the extent that they are faithful servants of humankind. The true test of humankind is to be found in the daily lives of the workers of the nation.”

Fast forward to March 9, 2025, the night Mark Carney became the Leader of the Liberal Party but wasn’t the Prime Minister yet. We heard a distinct echo of what historians have called Atkinson’s “fighting words” in Carney’s speech:

“Markets are indifferent to human suffering, and they are blind to our greatest needs, so when they’re not governed well they will deliver enormous wealth to the lucky few and hard times to the rest.”

These words ring true and hold power to affect change. But if we hope to win on any front, we need to hear many more voices—including people whose daily lives have become painfully unmanageable. You can be sure the Atkinson Foundation is still in this good fight with them, and we’re coming into the next round with everything we’ve got.