(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
People's Voice Editorial, Aug. 1-31, 2007
The structural crisis in the Canadian economy continues to deepen, with rising tide of manufacturing job losses and foreign takeovers, and now higher interest rates.
Bank of Canada governor David Dodge suggests that displaced workers seek employment in other industries and regions. Manufacturers shed another 31,000 jobs in June, mostly in Ontario, bringing the losses nationally over the past year to 103,000. Most of these workers are forced to seek lower-paying employment, and many will sink ever deeper into debt. Dodge's right-wing policies only hasten the inevitable moment when the "booming" economy hits a crisis, possibly doubling the present number of 1.5 million unemployed. Perhaps then Mr. Dodge will drop a helpful hint to these workers and their families about where to search for jobs and housing.
The governor seems similarly unconcerned about the impact of foreign takeovers. Over time, he claims, this process will increase jobs and production. "What matters is that they make the investments that are necessary to take advantage of global opportunities," according to Dodge. Meanwhile, the Harper government set up a five-member panel to review foreign investment and ownership rules, just hours after the Rio Tinto Group agreed to buy Montreal-based Alcan for $38.1 billion US, the largest takeover in Canadian history.
That panel will study the "net benefit" to Canada of foreign ownership. But we find it highly unlikely that their scales will be truly balanced. After all, federal governments in recent decades have always claimed to work for the benefit of all - and yet we now have record high corporate profits, real wages at a thirty year low, and a wealth gap expanding at a staggering rate. All this suggests that if selling out resources and jobs creates a "net benefit" to the rich and powerful, not much will change under Harper's Conservatives.