Mel Hurtig Says Foreign Investment? No. Foreign Ownership And Control? Yes!

Foreign investment is the inflation of a country's money supply from abroad. It is a remnant of the gold standard, limited capital days. Today, with bank deregulation, it is an outright fraud, encouraged by brainwashed economists and idiot, paid off governments.

With bank deregulation banks in certain countries are permitted to "create capital" out of the air against the assets of other countries, so their multinational corporate mafia can take them over to control their resources and peoples. It is the biggest racket in history and a con job to defraud others of the control of their resources, based on the fact that "Wealth can not be created, only taken". This is a prime example of "takings" without any logical, or legal reason.

In the case of Canada the situation is even worse, because much of the artificial capital to defraud and colonize is created by Canadian banks to kill our sovereignity and force us into slavery under the globalization racket, denying our decision making rights.

The brutal fact, which applies to Canada and also to any other so called Third World country, is that when you have resources, used as collaterals by foreign banks for the creation of imaginary capital to take control of them, you don't need foreign investment, because you have capital to develop them yourself. All businesses are doing this every day, so why couldn't nations? Any idea ?

Then, there's the other fact, that foreign investors never "bring" anything to a country, contrary to the claims of village politicians. Their plan is to create permanent debts and skin the recipients of everyuthing they can take and steal.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

Hey, I"m a maritimer and we've seen all this before-it started in 1867. It ain't pretty, and it's going to get an awful lot less pretty-go read some economic history of the maritimes and you'll see all the signs. From historian LD McCann here's a quote from 1934.

"Branch businesses may be regarded as emissaries of the metropolis, advancing its economic interests and consolodating its empire throughout the hinterland."

Canada, welcome to the maritimes-we've been waiting for you.

Uhhhh, that's not part of the culture of defeat is it Marcarc? The martimes is subsidized, time to start a business. Seriously though, you can't blame the feds for everything.

No, not for everything, but when you're part of an empire with so many restrictions you can blame it for an awful lot. Yes, that IS the culture of defeat, if the country keeps going down this track it will be the 'canadian culture of defeat', and in fact it already is that way. How many times here have we heard "NAFTA is not fair". In 1910 it was "the tariff is not fair".

Of course we could easily say the same at this website-you can't blame the americans for everything. Which is true, but not the real point.

Of course they're only subsidies when they go to the maritimes. In Ontario it's "investment" in auto plants, universities (multi-billion subsidies for R&D), manufacturing and protection for insurance companies and banks.

When you can't control your own destiny, you're perfectly justified in blaming whomever is controlling it. Just about every country knows that you NEED to protect your own industries, the above article is a perfect example of what happens when you can't. But what applies to nations, applies equally to regions, which is why there is no 'investment' in the maritimes. With all the banks and insurance companies centralized in Ontario, no bank in the maritimes is going to invest in an industry in the maritimes that may be potential competition for their biggest clients.

Those numbers, per capita, are virtually identical to what happened in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds in the maritimes. Don't take my word for it, research it for yourself. Like NAFTA there was initially a swell in productivity right after the union, but what was interesting is that in a ten year period virtually all of local production was replaced with foreign ownership (mainly Ontario and Quebec)-and initially it increased rapidly for a short period, then, it's been downhill from there, and, well, the rest is history.

It was trade liberalization that did it to the maritimes, and it's happening to Canada. People forget that with a culture of defeat comes stubborness. Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.

Canada/Canadians are unwilling to take the risks. Riding on the shirt tails of those who do, is the norm. We blame lack of productivity on high wages etc and sell our natural resources at bulk rates. The Canadian Government has always given concessions to foreign investors in preferance to locals. Canadians would expect bail out money if they failed.

Marcarc is right- regions of Canada have been purposely ignored for divide and conquer purposes. But I hate to see an 'east vs west' or maritimes vs Ontario, or Quebec vs the ROC mentality. Let`s simply get it together and forge our own revolution. A united Canada has so much potential.

---
Dave Ruston

I suspect most Canadians are blissfully unaware of the facts outlined by Mr. Hurtig, and if someone tried to explain it to them, the response would be a disinterested "duh!" as they switched their televisions back to the hockey game or fell off to sleep.

It's hard to blame them. Even those with subtantial post-secondary education find this sort of thing too complex and far too difficult to relate to their everyday lives and concerns. These days most people are furiously treading water, trying to balance huge debt loads with more work, less pay and the always growing challenge of raising their kids as best they can.

They don't understand that this is a key element of the economic model that has put them where they are, and that it is gradually destroying their way of life. Even if they did, they would say, as so many do to me when I raise the subject "there is nothing you or I can do about it".

They are probably right. If they tried seriously to do something, to object or speak out, they could put their employment at risk, damage their future prospects, perhaps get themselves put on some kind of slimy blacklist or be declared "criminals" by their own government, and generally find their lives unravelling. They know exactly how this would impact their families and children. They don't believe voting makes any difference (and it doesn't as long as most people vote Liberal or Conservative)and feel with much justification that it is a lot safer and wiser to just say "duh".

Only the three or four per cent of Canadians who are market dominent really understand what is happening, and since they benefit almost exclusively from it, you can bet they will stay very quiet.

I hail Mr. Hurtig's efforts to wake us up, but day after day, the polls show he is whispering into Hurricane Wilma. I go on seeking the answers, I try to offer a few myself from time to time, and every day I awake in hope that somehow, somewhere overnight there has been that "coalescing event" the mad right-wingers are always talking about, that will arrest this slide to nowhere and start us back in the right direction. Maybe tomorrow will be the day.

I posted this on CDM as well and added a further breakdown of those numbers - numbers I will surely repeat in the next general election till blue in the face:

Breaking down the numbers further: 11,380 companies over 20 years is 569 companies a year average. Or you can think of it as 3 companies every two days, and an average of 47 a month, EVERY month for the last 20 years!

---
If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

During the fight against the FTA in 1987-88, David Orchard had a number of public debates with Toronto U political economics professor John Crispo, a wild eyed promoter of the neoclassical free market theory. During one of the debates Crispo said: "It makes no difference who owns the country, as long as capital can move freely!" I have this on audio tape somewhere.

For his efforts, Crispo was rewarded by Mulroney with a CBC directorship and his university gave him the title of Professor Emeritus, just as his Western counterpart Herb Grubel was given the same title by Simon Fraser U. in Burnaby.

These are the most dangerous people, not politicians, because they're brainwashing literally thousands of students with these hokey ideas during their careers .

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

The company that drove the Canadian company I used to work for out of business, then liquidated it told me that the do that to approximately 6 of their 'cometitors' per week. Per WEEK!


---
"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

Too much foreign investment leaves public policy at the mercy of the whims of foreign investors thus instituting a crisis of democracy. If the government desires to enact a policy that foreign investors disapprove off then they will threaten to take their money out of the country and hurt the economy.

But why complain? Giving away Canada to foreigners is as Canadian as hockey. Successive governments, Tory and Grit, have wholeheartedly sold out Canada's economy and its resources to foreign powers. And the current government seeks to accelerate the hand over of our public spaces to foreign people with an inexplicable and uncontested increase in the number of immigrants.

What does it matter anyways? Canada is not a real place and Canadians are not a real people. Canada is just some economic, political, and social entity where people go to get “a better life” and foreign investors are just one of them. So why the protestations?

I don't know if you are kidding or telling the truth!

Canada not a real country? Tell that to successive generations of people born in Canada. Tell that to those who fought and died for this nation. Try telling that to any senior citizen who has been here since birth and I can assure you one thing - you will feel a real slap upside the head.

I've heard that said many times "Canada not a real nation". Maybe there is some truth to that. BUT, it is strange to me that someone would say that and try to pass it off as a fact. I guess many people are guilty of trying to pass their opinion as facts.

Kevin

---
Acoustic Guitar: This machine will kill facist.- Woody Guthrie

If you are familiar with my posts on this site you'd know that I do not mean when I say that Canada is not a real country. I was intentionally being snide. However multiculturalism does argue quite explicitly that there is no such thing as a Canadian or a Canadian culture but this is off topic.