The front cover of the 2019 book by the brilliant journalist, Linda McQuaig, captures in six words and one picture the theme of her latest work, an exposé of the blatant betrayals the Canadian people have endured at the hands of their own governments. The words SPORT and PREY above the dying Canada goose plummeting to earth, its feathers trailing behind it, encapsulate a century of greed, arrogance, and robbery of our nation’s public institutions.
The phrase “the sport and prey of Capitalists” was coined by James P. Whitney, Premier of Ontario in 1905. He was expressing his wish that the Hydro system in Ontario forever remain in the hands of the citizens and not fall victim to privatization.
McQuaig introduces her examination of 20th-century institutions transferred from public to private hands with this story of the scandalous current case of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank promised by Justin Trudeau following his election in 2015.
The Prime Minister’s team to head up the creation of the bank was led by Bill Morneau, former Canadian finance minister, who chose for his advisors several Wall Street profiteers anxious to lend their millions to a project that would bring them ample returns. Consequently, the plan presented to Parliament for approval was molded to fit the dream of the private investors for significant returns. The original plan to borrow from “the people’s bank” the Bank of Canada, at a modest rate was replaced by one that suited the greed of a small team of avaricious millionaires from the United States. Thus, Canadian citizens will be required to pay unnecessary millions for their own roads and bridges while a few investors proceed to, as Kevin Page, the first parliamentary budget officer, declared, “rob us blind”. (p.30)
Following this example from our own time and place, McQuaig plunges into the scandalous historical details of some of the worst deals done by prime ministers and premiers against the best interests of the citizenry. The sale of the Connaught Laboratories, and the privatization of Hwy. 407 are two examples.
The give-away of Alberta’s oil for the most meager of royalties, combined with the Alberta government’s deference to Big Oil, resulted in massive losses for Alberta’s citizens who owned the resource but were denied the profits.
McQuaig compares successive Alberta governments to the national government of Norway that insisted that the oil in Norway’s territories belonged to the Norwegian people, not the big oil companies. “…Norwegians have managed to save up about one trillion dollars more in their rainy-day fund than Alberta.” (pg. 198)
Thankfully, when the reader has turned the last page of chapter seven, now scandalized and outraged, she or he will find that Linda McQuaig sings the praises of “the common”, which Canadians know, have experienced, and are good at. In most of her examples of Canadians being sold out, the institutions in question were being well run, were self-sustaining, and sometimes made a profit for the people. Once in private hands, it was the share-holders that mattered. The workers and the general public mattered not a whit, as we all witnessed at the closing of Sears Canada on December 18, 2017.
The author's last words are to urge us who care to practice the courage of the Norwegians who realized early on that even if a corporation left because it didn’t like how the government defended its citizens, it couldn’t take the oil with it.
Reviewed by Joan Tinkess
Our guest blogger, Joan Tinkess, is an avid book club participant of nonfiction. Her years of empowering women’s groups in the Dominican Republic broadened her local and worldview.
For a deeper dive, and some interviews with the author