Canada: South America North

"Twenty years ago, forestry in Coastal BC was synonymous with two letters -- MB, short for MacMillan Bloedel. In places like Port Alberni MB was king, running sawmills, a plywood mill, and pulp and paper facilities. But even with the company’s pre-eminent position in town, there was still wider competition. Bill Routley, president of United Steelworkers Union Local 1-80 in Duncan, recalls negotiations with four major companies back then -- Doman, Fletcher Challenge, MB and Pacific Forest Industries. Today, there’s one. It goes by the initials WFP, or Western Forest Products." "During its first term, the current government scrapped clauses linking logging rights to the maintenance of specific mills. In essence it said that social contract provisions were an undue drag on corporate profits. Following that logic, we could ultimately have no mills in any communities." http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20060521210729961 Canada is following doggedly in the footsteps of those countries of South and Central America we used to deride as "Banana Republics," and only a decade later. Now those nations are throwing off the yoke of a corrupt and inefficient "free-market system" (was this juicy appellation coined by the Ministry of Truth?) that threatened to keep the citizens of those countries in penury for decades, and for which they received virtually no benefit. That was reserved for an very elite few. Now the voters have seen and experienced the results of a decade of what can only be called pillaging and plundering, all done in the name of prosperity, and they are increasingly voting to" throw the bums out", in the hopes of replacing them with someone -- anyone -- of a more egalitarian posture. Will it work? That is the trillion-dollar question. But what is known for sure is that the free market system foisted upon them was anyting but free. How long will we Canadians have to have our "feet held to the fire" before we see that the road we are travelling on leads to the proverbial ruin. The example is before us. Do we have the courage to open our eyes? Excerpts from The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Editorials/2006/05/Editorial1371/ [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 24, 2006]

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