Federal Government & Politics II

[Build.It]

Are the two really that different? Corporatism has a similar outcome as communism just not to quite the same level of severity:

Low-to-no competition
Propagandic media
Property and production is controlled by a very small minority
Wage control for a significant portion of the jobs
Supply shortages

I'll take corporatism (what we have) over communism, but what we should be striving for is capitalism (I don't think any country truly has this atm).

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

From Marxist to "social-corporatist" in a literal handful of posts. What a valuable contribution to this forum.

Stay in school kids.

To be fair trudeau did say he admired chinas “basic dictatorship”. And he also praised Fidel Castro as a great leader.

So to say trudeau has communist beliefs/ideals isn’t a stretch.

It’s kinda the truth.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Because a US election sucks all the air out of the room. We aren't American, but Trumps antics tend to take up a depressing amount of the news airtime up here. So a Federal Campaign would be fighting for air time and headspace against that, even though Canadians don't have a say in the fight at all.

I don't think PP would see that as a problem.

[Build.It]

Yep

https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stateme...resident-fidel

[casper]

Originally Posted by Build.It

Are the two really that different? Corporatism has a similar outcome as communism just not to quite the same level of severity:

Low-to-no competition
Propagandic media
Property is controlled by a small minority
Wage control for a significant portion of the jobs
Supply shortages

I'll take corporatism (what we have) over communism, but what we should be striving for is capitalism (I don't think any country truly has this atm).

We don't have Corporatism in Canada in general. Perhaps you could make an argument that some of the indigenous communities where the community owns the general store, the hotel, the mill, etc. is such a structure.

Canada is very much a mixed market that leans heavily towards free market.

Yes we have large corporations but for the most part they are not centrally controlled. Even then just under half of the workforce in Canada is with SMEs not major corporations.

[Tvisforme]

Looks like Poilievre is continuing with his Trump-style name-calling:

Sell-out Singh has pulled a stunt...

[Build.It]

Leaving the other half to be run by oligopolies/state. That's my point.

To name a few:
Bell-Rogers
Loblaws-Sobeys-Metro
Star-Post
Air Canada-Westjet

They all receive protection from the government against foreign competition and domestic SME competition.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Build.It

Leaving the other half to be run by oligopolies/state. That's my point.

To name a few:
Bell-Rogers
Loblaws-Sobeys-Metro
Star-Post
Air Canada-Westjet

They all receive protection from the government against foreign competition and domestic SME competition.

The federal government limits telecom and airlines to generally be majority owned and controlled by Canadians. Nearly every western country does the same.

As for Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro. Well there is nothing stopping a foreign player from entering the Canadian market. Walmart purchased Wolco/Woolworth in the 90s and did just that. Target tried and failed about 10 years ago. Beyond the big three Costco, Walmart, Amazon (under the WholeFoods brand) are all major foreign players. Domestically there are lots of regionals like Co-op, Save-On-Foods etc.

The print media companies are also not regulated. A foreign company could setup shop in Canada. The reason it is not happening is it is crappy business. People are not buying papers they way they use to in years past.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Build.It

I'm in the "Trudeau is a Marxist moron, and thank God our system limits how much damage he (or any PM) can actually do" camp.

My life is largely the same now as it was when Harper was in power, despite the stark ideological difference. The PM really doesn't have that much power, compared to most other countries' leaders. The country is mostly run by corporations.

Honestly, Kyle Kemper's interview on Tucker was pretty eye opening for me. The biggest takeaway for me was that JT isn't really running things, and in hindsight seems to check out.

Trudeau is marxist but Canada is mostly run by corporations?!?

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Trudeau is marxist but Canada is mostly run by corporations?!?

Sometimes the populist conspiracy theories get confused.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Build.It

Leaving the other half to be run by oligopolies/state. That's my point.

To name a few:
Bell-Rogers
Loblaws-Sobeys-Metro
Star-Post
Air Canada-Westjet

They all receive protection from the government against foreign competition and domestic SME competition.

We definitely need more economic liberalization to break up the oligarchies you are mentioning here but to call it "corporatist" is melodramatic.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by casper

The federal government limits telecom and airlines to generally be majority owned and controlled by Canadians. Nearly every western country does the same

América Movil, which is Mexican owned, operates as a telecom company in every country in the Americas, except for Venezuela, Cuba.. and Canada.

[Truenorth00]

Telecom kinda lends itself to a natural monopoly. There's only so much spectrum to go around. Any foreign entrant coming here will not be super interested in cutting prices. The places that do have great prices in Canada? Competition from a public provider like SaskTel. There's only one other proven method to lower prices abroad. Reverse auction of the spectrum: bidders win spectrum by pledging lowest prices to consumers. But then the federal government can't book $5B in revenue.

On air travel, the fares are a small part of the problem. It's taxes and fees. Our airlines aren't exceptionally profitable. And our pilots are some of the lowest paid among major carriers. Our pilots also have longer working hours (an ongoing dispute between safety advocates and regulators). So really it's the taxes and fees. Aviation in Europe and the US is a cost for governments and subsidized. In Canada, it's a cash cow for all three levels of government. Until this changes, foreign competition will only help a small part of the market: mostly travel to Asia by Middle Eastern Carriers exploiting cheap labour and state backed loans. Won't make flying from Halifax to Vancouver substantially cheaper. You know why might help reduce travel costs, improve reliability and provide redundancy? Rail in major travel corridors. There aren't many major corridors in Europe, Japan, Korea, or China without High Speed Rail. And in those Corridors, it helps to keep a lid on air fare. But ya know, Canada with its 1 dimensional thinking. Even the Americans understood this enough to build and improve Acela.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by Gresto

Bullshit. Look, the two primary features of Marxism (a.k.a. communism) are revocation of private property and private business. The only party championing those things is the actual Communist Party of Canada.

Is the Marxist-Leninist Party Of Canada nothing to you?

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

A little digging and you can follow the $. PP takes taxpayer money for salary, buys real estate and then rents it out to others who also take taxpayer money for salary. This guy hasn't earned a dollar on his own - what an inspiration.

Nepo baby is a much more honourable profession.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Trudeau is marxist but Canada is mostly run by corporations?!?

Marxist owned by Big Telco, Big Airlines, Big Banks and Big Grocers.

Do they not teach what Communism is in schools anymore? I swear I learned the definition in Grade 9.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Nepo baby is a much more honourable profession.

Can we say they are both just as bad?

At least Harper spent time outside Parliament before becoming leader and then PM.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Can we say they are both just as bad?

At least Harper spent time outside Parliament before becoming leader and then PM.

All parties have a leadership selection process that favours name recognition. This favours people who have been in politics a long time or people whose daddy was in politics a long time. I think we would get different results if the caucus chose the leader.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Can we say they are both just as bad?

At least Harper spent time outside Parliament before becoming leader and then PM.

Harper lost to Justin Trudeau.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Can we say they are both just as bad?

At least Harper spent time outside Parliament before becoming leader and then PM.

I would say JT is marginally better than PP. He did spend some time working as teacher in a public secondary school and a private school in Vancouver. It was teaching French, math and drama. While not the law and business experience that most political leaders have it something other than politics.

Harper (per his Wikipedia page) started in the mailroom at Imperial Oil. Spent some time as an accountant and later went back to get an Economics degree. He brings some real world experience.

We tend to have lawyers become PMs in Canada with some regularity.

Originally Posted by Loco101

Harper lost to Justin Trudeau.

As one would expect. I guess despite my distrust of him, JT is looking like he will lose to PP.