Unpublished letter submitted to the Toronto Star

Re: It’s a new Canada, Headline, October 20, 2015.

In the euphoria and after-glow of the massive and much needed election victory of the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau Canadians should be reminded that in reality little has changed and little will change despite even the well-meaning and naive intentions of Mr. Trudeau and his party. One has only to look south of our border at our neighbours in the U.S. to appreciate the profound disappointment of most Americans with the performance of Barack Obama, their own saviour in waiting eight years ago who held out great promise for change and ultimately changed very little. Canadians have again been permitted their once every four year superficial dalliance with supposed electoral democracy and can be reassured that another safe alternative has been put in office. That is exactly the problem.

Shortly things will return to normal and the private sector big-business interests who really run our government will return to Parliament hill with their briefcases open seeking billions in corporate welfare, tax concessions and preferential legal agreements that give them control over public resources for pennies on the dollar, while threatening to take jobs elsewhere if they don’t get what they want. They will hold our new government hostage just as they have in the past and extract their ransom for the precarious employment they provide. We should remember that more jobs doesn’t mean better, full-time or well-paying jobs – it just means more minimum wage jobs.

Under the eight years of Stephen Harper’s neoconservative rule and unknown to the public, government has been largely ceded to the private sector and large corporate interests. This began in the 1990s with Ronal Regan, Margaret Thatcher and our own willing accomplice Brian Mulroney who ushered in the era of neoliberalism – or all out blitzkrieg war on government and social control of the private sector premised on deregulation, privatization and amoral individualism as the guiding premises of U.S., British and Canadian society and economics. This became the corporate globalization movement. It began in North America with the signing of NAFTA and has been followed by a continuous raft of ‘free trade’ agreements culminating with the TPP signed recently that strip legal control of the private sector from nation-state governments and place it in the hands of massive corporate interests. These agreements almost certainly ensure slave labour employment conditions at the lowest pay possible even in North America in order to drive profits as high as possible. Countries like Canada have willingly signed over their rights to natural and human resources like water and oil, privatized genetic codes and ceded legal redress to corporate interests without consulting the general public, in their desire to create jobs and stimulate the economy. Our healthcare and social services are controlled by big pharma who relentlessly press for privatized medical care. They have in effect mortgaged all our futures for short term political gain while destroying our planet in the process. Every major world problem can be traced back to the ravages of global capitalism.

So while we savour our champagne and celebrate democracy, let’s not forget who really runs our government.