Corporate Control: Canada in Decline Book Two: 2 (Canada in Decline, 2)

How deep does corporate dominance go in Canada? The second book in Nora Loreto’s landmark series dives into the corporate web spun around Canada’s economy, society, and politics.

The joke goes that Canada is three mining companies in a trench coat. Or three oil companies in a trench coat. Or three telecom companies in a trench coat. It’s funny because it’s almost true: a handful of corporations exert a disproportionate amount of power over Canadian democracy.

Corporate profits are at a record high, and the divide between the rich and the poor has never been wider. Canadians are struggling with affordability, the housing crisis, and wages that don’t cover basic needs. The combination of these forces is a pressure cooker that politicians have promised to tackle, except they can’t: they are too restricted by corporate power to confront the roots of the problems Canadians face.

The first book in the Canada in Decline series examines the rise and fall of Canada’s social safety net. In this next volume, Loreto goes further, identifying why Canadian politicians seem impotent in the face of corporate Canada.

Nora Loreto is an activist, author, and journalist. She is the editor at the Canadian Association of Labour Media and co-hosts the popular political podcast Sandy and Nora Talk Politics. She lives in Québec City.