The DNPP* Finds MP/PM** was AD/FM***

The Darn Near Perfect Party knows why it is more difficult to get money from Ottawa.  The reason is simple.  Ottawa does not want to spend money on programs.  The excuse for denying assistance is "There is no money."  This is a flat out lie.  This country is wealthy beyond belief.  The real reason is simple.  Money spent on Health, Housing, Education and Agriculture means less money for the wealthy.

For thirty years a greater and greater share of the wealth created in this country has been directed by those in power to those least in need.  The degree of deception  in the way funds are moved has grown. Proof of the sophistication of these  practices can be found in the amazing fact that the man who spent nine years  destroying the social fabric of Canada is being looked on as a savior.  The public is being deceived.

If Paul Martin was aware of what was being done in Finance, and condoned it, he was not fit to be Finance Minister, let alone Prime Minister.  If he was not aware of what was taking place, he is not capable of being Finance Minister, let alone Prime Minister.

Just a few months ago the Auditor General outlined a program that Finance was using to place public funds  beyond the reach of Parliament, and out of  sight of the public.  Sheila Fraser spoke of 7.1 billion placed in 9 programs over a 5 year period.  And it seems those 9 programs are just the beginning of another scandal. There is another 6 billion being used in the same way. Remember, most of  this money has not been spent, it just sits there. Plus 27.2 billion moved over the period 1990-1999 through various other methods.   And the reason is bizarre. 

There is an embarrassment of riches.  If the public became aware of the money available, there would be pressure on government to spend.  And government does not wish to spend.  They reduce cash available by cutting taxes, using tax expenditures, and, in desperation, hiding funds in sham foundations.  I know that doesn't seem rational, and it is not rational. Anyone quoting the conventional wisdom will tell you "Ottawa can't wait to spend every dollar it can get it's hands on, and more."  The trouble with the things that everyone knows is, that they often are not true.

What we are running into here is the disconnect between what people think happens, and what actually happens.

To sort it out we have to go back over 60 years. This country had just come out of a depression.  Our parents and grandparents had organized, marched, been beaten up, ridden down and shot. Because they wanted a better life. Then they were asked to go to war to save the system that was pounding on them. 

To give them credit, those folks fought the war and then came home and fought another war.  They were not prepared to accept another depression.  And the people in power were a little intimidated.  Let's face it. There were Socialists in Saskatchewan and Social Crediters in Alberta. Even rock solid Ontario had started twitching.

...Two little side notes....In the US, during the 30's a Mormon banker named Marriner Eccles had started many of the changes later credited to Keynes. He was a clear sighted man who told his fellow capitalists in 1933..... "We shall either adopt a plan which will meet the problem of unemployment under capitalism, or a plan will be adopted for us which will operate without capitalism."  His thinking led  the establishment to give up something to avoid losing everything. And so ....on to the New Deal.

In Toronto, just after the war, a small thing happened. Married Veterans were  housed in army huts in the CNE grounds. They had children.  Traffic used to take a short cut through the Exhibition grounds, at a high rate of speed.  The vets complained and nothing happened.  So a group organized, seized a city work crew's equipment, and jack hammered up what might have been the first  rumble strips in Toronto. I believe  incidents like this warned the power structure a change had taken place.  The people would not stand for what had been.  Any attempt to revisit the thirties would  have led to widespread civil disobedience.  And with the CCF ready to fill any power vacuum, the Canadian establishment retreated. Money scares easily.

So all the years of meetings and marches and strikes bore fruit. Canada began a long climb to a more equal society. Working people bought homes and sent their kids to University.  Farmers got marketing boards, kept the Co-ops, the Crow rate, and the Wheat Board.  The country built roads, sewage plants, hospitals and schools. The seaway was built.

Along with the physical plant we built a society. Unemployment Insurance, Workers Compensation, CPP, Medicare, improved pensions and Family Allowances. Two-price wheat and crop insurance.  There were low cost mortgages for farmers and home buyers. All this and more. 

And our wartime debt was shrinking in importance. In spite of the fact we had fought another, although smaller war, in Korea.

In 1945 Canada was in the position of someone who owes an amount equal  to their earnings.  We owed 12 billion and GDP was 12 billion.  By 1970 we owed 17 billion and GDP was 90 billion. And we had bought and paid for billions in assets.

So in the year of 19 hundred and 70  the world was our oyster.  An educated work force, lots of natural resources, and the auto pact was working.  Every day was going to be Saturday night.   

About now is when the creepy music starts. It seems that Big Money was not dead, just sleeping. When inflation, along with taxes, began to eat all the interest earnings plus some capital, the people who lend and invest got concerned. 

It always amuses me when we talk of the need to unite the right. The right has always known what it wants.  Money and Power.  It is the left that can't agree.

Anyway, the first few drops of rain fell on our parade when the Tri-Lateral Commission announced that there was an excess of democracy. The elites have always been afraid that giving votes to the great unwashed would mean trouble.  And to some extent it had. For the rich. Certainly more of the money formerly ascending the golden staircase was being given to those who did the work.  The time had come for capital to counterattack.

To find out more about that Tri-Lateral bunch (Japan, North America, and Europe) just type in the name on your computer and you will get names and titles of officers, research papers and so on.

There are a lot of these super groups.  The Bilderberg group, the BIS and so on. Canada got the BCNI, US got The Presidents Roundtable.  Some of the names might have changed, but the objectives remain.  They all have things in common.  They take an active interest in world financial and political matters, and they have power. They have a hatred and fear of socialism. They have another thing in common.  Most people are not aware of them.

And, of course, they are conspirators.

What I am trying to describe is a resurgence of the influence of business and capital in Gov't. That influence had never gone away but it had been reduced  for 30 years. If you could graph the overall progress of the country, Canada improved until 1975 and then began deteriorating.  The best measure of financial health is debt. Money borrowed for useful, productive purposes is ok, but when you start borrowing to pay interest, that spells trouble.

Between 1970 and 1980 everything changed.  We were told our businesses had to have tax cuts. They had to consolidate so they could compete on the world stage.  It is odd to think that was said over thirty years ago.  Time flies when you are consolidating.  Anyway, Canada changed our tax laws so Corporations could buy Corporations with tax dollars. At first, we lost a little revenue. Over time we lost a lot.

Then throughout the 70's deductions were increased on personal income. As  a country, we lost a little.  As people, we gained a little.  But a really big problem was growing. 

Those tax cuts meant our debts, Federal, Municipal, and Provincial  had begun to grow.  Most of us believe this was due to  bad management and waste. I do not.  I believe it was a deliberate maneuver.  Growing a debt by borrowing meant moving tax dollars from the many to the few. Expanding the debt with high interest rates meant being able to tell people we could not afford social programs. It also meant more money transferred up the chain  through those high interest rates.

Lets look at the amount of money shifted. Since 1975 over a trillion dollars of gov't. interest has been paid in Canada. Over thirty times the value of all land, stored grain, livestock and machinery in Saskatchewan.  And we are still paying around 70 billion a year in interest.

Most of this problem was created when Lucky Pierre was King.  It is hard to believe our resident flower child was such a dyed in the wool capitalist.  But I guess it was just as hard to believe a wealthy 48 year old was a flower child. 

If it is still hard to believe he was an Elitist, remember Paul Demarais helped Trudeau into the big chair.  And Thomas D'Aquino of the BCNI worked for him.  Another strike is the fact he replaced a small "l" liberal banker in the Bank of Canada with Gerald Bouey.

The final touch came when Trudeau had a chance to correct many of the troubles he had caused and did not.  The campaigns in  1979 and 1980 had exposed many problems.  Clark proposed some solutions, but he fumbled the ball. Trudeau could have used some of those solutions. But instead of that, our alleged left winger sat and watched  Alan MacEeachern's decent budget torn apart by business. Trudeau had declined the chance to do the right thing.

Okay, you ask, so where did we get all that money???  We borrowed it.  From the folks we gave the tax cuts to. And then we borrowed back the interest we paid them, and paid interest on that money too.  Did  they thank us? No. They buried the cash in family trusts and other tax shelters. Come to think of it, so did Alice and I.  One of these days we will  take it out of our RRSP's and pay some tax on it. Speaking of taxes on bond interest, a person in the tax department told me less than 10% of what might be expected to be paid was actually being paid on bond earnings.

One of the silliest things ever said about this debt business was said when our debt was growing. "Our debt is really not a problem.  After all, we owe it to ourselves."  Sure we do. 

In the US the IRS and the Treasury Dept. update their research on wealth accumulation every three years.  It seems almost half of gov't. bonds are owned by the richest  1/2 of 1% of the people.  It is probably about the same here. In Canada that would amount to about 50,000 families.  So 1/2 of what we owe ourselves is owned by a very few of ourselves.  And half the interest goes to them.

So, if a total of 70 billion is paid in interest each year and about 30 billion goes to the 50 Ks (50,000 rich families) that means an average of 600,000 to each family, each year.  And our average rich folks are sitting on wallets stuffed with 12,0000,000 in Gov't paper. To some of us debt is beautiful. 

It is true that the rich pay lots of taxes.  But the Really Rich get back 3 to 5 dollars for every dollar paid.  Maybe that is why Conrad Manybucks never demanded increased taxes to reduce debt.

I know it is hard to absorb the idea the debt could be a deliberate creation.  But Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, spelled out the rationale  in 1980 ....to get people to give things up, you have to create a crisis.  And it is true. Without that debt we would not be where we are to-day. 

Without that debt to scare us and make us lose confidence in Government, would we have given up our independence under the FTA? Even with all the hype around that agreement it failed to gain a majority of voters in 88 and was defeated in 1993. But we still have it.  Plus the NAFTA.

What we don't have is the CNR, the Pools, the branch lines and the Crow.   That's in the prairies.  And in the rest of the country things are slipping.  Cod and Lumber, the Auto industry and Steel.  Good jobs are going, and being replaced with hog barns employing Mexicans. Farmers are being sued by trans-nationals for saving seed. Nobody but a few greedy bastards want that kind of a world, but it is here.  Because a huge debt convinced us our governments were inept and  there was nothing we could do.  So a lot of people quit voting.

Lets pretend there is no debt and we will spend spend that annual 70 billion plus on ourselves and see what happens.

• Medicare would take 10%.
• And 10% for infrastructure. 
• Housing 2%
• Environmental clean up. 10% 
• Education 10%
• Military 5%
• The Crow Rate would have used up 1% .  One cent from each interest dollar would be $700,000,000.00 
• How about another 4% to farmers.  That would be a total of 5% or 3.5bn a year.  A nice amount that would have doubled Canada's net farm income in the 90's.

We are in trouble.  Only a little over half the money is spent and we are out of gas.  Did I mention close to half the money spent will come back in new taxes and savings on social costs? Who says we can not afford a decent world? 

It is really hard to spend that much unless you are wasting it on interest payments to friends.  I guess we would have to scrap the GST and cut taxes.

Okay.  Time to get back to business.  I just wanted you to know what could have been if we had stayed on guard and kept the NDP mean and hungry.

What is more important is what is possible today. Several hours ago when you started reading I said  we were a wealthy country.  And we are. . Even without rolling back those ill-advised tax cuts from before the last election we could have as much as 20 billion to spend.  10 from the so-called surplus, 3-4 destined for debt reduction and probably another 5-6 Martin was hiding in Foundations. 

But until we scare the establishment as much as they have scared us, there will be no money.  We had better get the NDP a new set of dentures.  Or get a new dog. Let us not forget that the peoples party in Saskatchewan is the largest  investor in hog factories and the patron saint of genetic engineering.  And hardly a bystander in the wreck of the Wheat Pool.

A much better future is possible. But only if we think, not only of ourselves, but of everyone. And the fight should be easier this time.  We know the terrain, and we are better equipped. We have more information, and improved communications.  If we could only find a political vehicle to rally around it could be more a skirmish than a battle.  Remember...Big money is mean, but it is timid.