Right politics in Canada are marked by neo-liberalism, by adulation of the U.S.A., by a desire to funnel the national wealth of Canada to a single, small, brutal class found partly in this country but largely in the U.S.A. Right politicians (and Right Politics) might be described as a manifestation of U.S. Republicanism in Canada, admiring the blunt and blinkered policies of the George W. Bush regime. They are found largely in the reactionary party of Stephen Harper and Peter McKay, fallaciously calling themselves "Conservative". They are found overwhelmingly in the B.C. Liberal government of Gordon Campbell and the Alberta Conservative government of Ralph Klein. They are found, to some extent, in the Quebec Liberal government headed by Progressive Conservative Party escapee Jean Charest, and in the Right Wing of Paul Martin's national Liberal Party.

All are happy to flourish the flags and buntings of Canadian sovereignty; but they are, essentially, a U.S., reactionary, neo-liberal, anti-democratic Fifth Column in Canada with malign designs on Canada's national wealth. That makes us ask what national wealth is. To answer, maybe we should begin by asking what the personal wealth of Canadians is.



Most Canadians usually think immediately of income (wages), of money in the bank, of their house (if they own it), and then, maybe, of stocks and bonds -- "investments" as their own private wealth. They don't usually think Their Own Private Wealth is -- without question -- their guaranteed pension which is part of their "wages" in some jobs, as well as the pension paid for by their taxes. They don't usually think their own private wealth takes in, also, their access to medical care and treatment which they also pay for by tax. Nor do they think a part of their own private wealth is the right to have a decent job and to keep it.

Part of their own private wealth is also (un)employment insurance, social welfare, and various old age assistance measures. As we know, all of those last mentioned six things are under savage attack in Canada. We see the daily attacks but we don't know why they are being made. We keep being told by Right politicians, Right corporate spokespeople, most economists, and the Right press and media -- and, sadly, by many of our unknowing friends - that "the country just can't afford those things".

That is a flagrant lie. It is perpetrated with such completeness by the people who want to corner all national wealth into their own pockets that the lies make up a scheme of planned indoctrination. ("Lie to them. Keep them dumb. Rob them.")

Our own private wealth is, of course, a part of the national wealth. Well then, what is our national wealth?

Our national wealth -- the economists say -- is made up of all the "good and services" we produce. That's only part of the answer, but you might accept it and then ask: "But where does real money come in, the money I put in my bank or credit union account?" That's an absolutely KEY question. But first -- a little more about our national wealth.

Canadians (all of us) own the air, the waters, the "natural resources" in Canada. That is a significant part of our wealth. In our democratic society governments prove our ownership by making laws about mineral and other extraction, taxes on operations and on land holdings, pollution regulations, sale of resources, bankruptcy, and so on. If you don't think "the people" own all of those things finally, then don't pay the taxes on your home or business, for instance, and see what happens: the government eventually seizes it. But a lie exists, perpetrated by economists. That lie is that private corporations "own" ,say, oil reserves, forests, mines, etc. They don't. From time to time, governments set up conditions (supposedly for the good of the country) in which corporations are, under certain circumstances, given control over parts of Canadian wealth. In the botched system we operate now, those corporations do much to get governments into power, and as payoff governments let corporations rape the resources, pollute, process resources for private profit only, and treat workers very badly.

That happens so much and so may laws exist so that the very rich can SEEM to own the bases of our national wealth, people believe they somehow "belong" to the few who, by legislation and policing, have got their hands on it. In fact those same wealthy people shout incessantly that those who don't believe the special few own the national wealth are betraying our sacred democratic system.

The root of our democratic system is that we shall be "governed" by representatives we fairly vote in to our legislatures, and that our representatives shall form a governing council called "the cabinet". That cabinet will then originate laws on behalf of the whole population that must meet the approval of the other representatives in the legislature in a majority. Nothing that is basic to our democratic system says ANYTHING about the right of private corporations to hold public wealth and to use it to make themselves rich to the detriment of others. That is why they repeat over and over and over that "democracy" guarantees them ownership of the nation's wealth. When they say it, they are liars.

In a Province like B.C., right now, with only two opposition members in the legislature, Right politicians in power, and with a press and media owned and gagged by the wealthy seeking more wealth and power, "the cabinet" can rule for the very rich exclusively. The only power the majority of the people have right now is the power to engage in forms of disruption to threaten the wealth gathering of the rich in and outside the Province. (But B.C., right now, is a special case.)

Our national wealth possesses another resource not mentioned. The people. Kept healthy, well-educated, financially secure, and happy, the people can make the most of all the other resources. They can balance extraction and processing of natural resources with the level of reserves. They can invent, discover, initiate, build, and develop to assure the well-being of all. They can place some enterprises in the hands of private owners, some in the hands of the Crown, some in the hands of co-operatives or guilds or worker-owners. They can experiment with worker planning and control for significant sections of the economy. But only if the people are REALLY in control of their law-makers. If they are not, - as increasingly is the case in the present ? the people are considered as merely one of the instruments to be used by the greedy rich to help them get richer.

In fact, more and more of the people are - more and more -- used and abused. If their energy and knowledge can be employed for almost nothing, the greedy rich can become richer and richer. The phrase "wage slavery" is not a foolish one. It means keeping a large portion of the population on the edge of subsistence, trapped. It means they are used to help generate wealth, the largest part of which is given to a few. Then a small part is squeezed out to keep the working population barely alive, subsisting, "wage slaves".

The question in many minds has to be how or why the greedy can get governments to work for them only. And the answer has to be, partly, that the same ambition, greed, and lust for power that motivates many "capitalists" also motivates many people (but certainly not all) wanting government powers. That fact can be understood very easily if we get rid of a common myth perpetrated by Right politics. The myth is that we are all greedy, that we all want the kind of obscene wealth grabbed by corporations, their bosses, and friends. We don't. (But that is a subject for another column.) If we believe the lie, we surrender to Right politics -- the politics which are determined to destroy democratic freedoms, to subjugate the populations, and to give all wealth and power to a single, small, brutal class. That class and the politicians who serve it are largely made up of psychopaths -- people without normal moral reactions, bent on their own power and satisfaction.

Fortunately, they are not like the rest of the population.

But they are tirelessly cunning. And in their cunning they have learned something they keep from the rest of the population. That "something" answers the question stated earlier: "where does real money come in, the money I put in my bank or credit union?" Step back just a little.

"Real money" is there to represent all the "goods and services", all the buildings, the factories, the resources in the ground, the water, the air, and the people -- the whole wealth of the nation. I can't ask you, say, to take a bookshelf I've just made in exchange for a turkey, two dozen apples, and a new pair of boots. And so I sell my bookshelf for "real money" and buy the turkey, the apples, and the boots from three separate people. They take their part of the money and "circulate it". Its circulation keeps the economy alive.

When I make the bookshelf, a new thing, how does it get represented by "real money"? If it didn't exist before, how can there be money to cover it if the money in the country already covers everything with money value? The answer is very simple, but is disguised, lied about, confused, mystified, and complicated to keep wealth in as few hands as possible. The answer is that the "real money" we're talking about is printed as the economy grows in order to cover new things like my bookshelf. But in this country the printers of money are the private banks (which are private corporations) which make profit from every dollar they print. The printer of money should be The Bank of Canada which could print it at almost no cost -- with amazing results.

The government of Canada could say "we need thirty billion dollars for health care, coast guard ships, and public housing this year". The Bank of Canada could print it. The government of Canada could then pay for real goods and services, begin the circulation of necessary increased money in the country, improve life for Canadians, and have no debt. The 30 billion would pay for wages, equipment, building, etc. The people paid would then use the money, continue to circulate it, and encourage vitality in the rest of the economy.

Economists say, falsely, that letting The Bank of Canada create money would create inflation. Does letting the private banks print money create inflation? The government could franchise the private banks to do several kinds of limited money creation. It could say, for instance, "You may create money for credit card lending if you don't charge, say, more than six percent and keep strict limits on borrowing caps. You can go on creating some money as you do now. If someone wants to build a 30 million dollar apartment building, you can loan the money (which is creating 30 million dollars), because you know local needs and local conditions".

The situation now is that The Bank of Canada creates almost no money. The government borrows (expensively and needlessly) from private banks. And the government constantly tells Canadians it (and we Canadians) cannot afford things that could very easily be afforded and made available.

Who are the private banks? They are private corporations which have no desire to serve Canada and Canadians but to get wealthier and wealthier on money not their own and to place riches in the hands of the few.

Are they honest? Not particularly. They lend money massively to countries other than Canada (regardless of Canadian needs) and many have speculated foolishly and lost multimillions doing so (with whose money?). What is more, many of them dwell in the area I have written about before -- the area of legalized criminality. The CIBC has paid $80 million "to settle allegations it aided and abetted a massive accounting fraud" at Enron. (Globe and Mail, July 29 03 A1). Other banks "singled out as aiding and abetting Enron's deceit" were the Toronto-Dominion Bank and the Royal Bank of Canada (Globe and Mail Dec 20 03 B1). RBC is alleged to have known "Enron executives were engaging in 'wrongful conduct' and that the bank assisted in transactions designed to manipulate its financial statements". (Globe and Mail Dec 3 03 B1).

What is most surprising about those institutions is that no legal steps have been taken against them in Canada -- as if they are above and beyond Canadian law. Public statements I have quoted clearly point to criminal transgression by institutions permitted to create money in Canada. In effect the "real money" of national wealth is very heavily in the hands of some institutions that, significantly, cannot be trusted to engage in honest behaviour. In addition, the banks are always very generous supporters of the political power structure.

In short, the private banks are highly suspect institutions to be given the power they have. Hiding the truth, working for the obscenely wealthy, Right politics and politicians have permitted and encouraged the dismantling of health care, the weakening of public education, the corrosion of the environment, the failure to maintain public housing, the refusal to grant justice to Native Peoples, and the prevention of unique Canadian expertise in areas of secondary and tertiary development of natural resources -- all of which would be unnecessary if the creation of money was returned to The Bank of Canada.

Right politics has asked nothing of the private banks which have moved (as the Globe and Mail quotations show) into criminal and near-criminal activity. In fact, Right politics have given the private banks more and more power.

The time has come for a serious change, for a return to The Bank of Canada as primary creator of "real money" and to the government of Canada as a careful, prudent, measured user of a portion of that money in order to provide services and infrastructure Canadians need AND AT THE SAME TIME to reduce debtloads both of the national government and of personal lenders.

The savage attacks upon people's own private wealth are manifested in assaults upon wages, pensions, medicare, job permanence, (un)employment insurance, social welfare and various old age assistance measures. The attacks are championed by corporations and other supporters of Right politics.

That is where "real money comes in, the money I put in my bank or credit union account". It is phony money, created by private banks for obscene profit with the intention of pauperizing the general population in order to enrich a single, small, brutal class.

In simple terms Right politics engage in the calculated theft of national wealth on behalf of a single, small, brutal class. When that wealth is returned to Canadians, we will see we CAN afford decent lives for all Canadians. But we will have to end the power of private banks in Canada as a first step in returning our national wealth to our people.

Other articles in this series:

Right Politics and the Decay of Canada, Part One

Right Politics and the Decay of Canada, Part Two

Right Politics and the Decay of Canada, Part Three

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Robin Mathews publishes on culture, politics, the arts, and Canadian Intellectual history. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, a potter. His column appears regularly on Vive le Canada.