The Canadian Economy: Denial, Delusion, or Cutting Edge? - John Ralston Saul

The closing keynote at Shifting Gears: Transitioning to the Future Economy, Parkland Institute's 20th Annual Conference (November 18-20, 2016).
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The Canadian Economy: Denial, Delusion, or Cutting Edge?
John Ralston Saul
It is time to turn away from the old models, the old for or against mass extraction, the old raw materials dependency. At what point do we grow up and embrace more sophisticated, complex ideas of value added? What is the point of all these business schools, economists, advisors, if we remain stuck in the same old models of rough exploitation?
John Ralston Saul is an award-winning essayist and novelist. Often regarded as Canada’s leading public intellectual, he has been declared a “prophet” by TIME magazine and is included in the prestigious Utne Reader’s list of the world’s 100 leading thinkers and visionaries. His fourteen books have been translated into 28 languages in 37 countries. Some of his most important works include the philosophical trilogy, Voltaire´s Bastards, The Unconscious Civilization and The Doubter’s Companion with its conclusion, On Equilibrium. His most recent novel is Dark Diversions and most recent essay The Comeback, which has changed the conversation on Indigenous issues in Canada. Saul is President Emeritus of PEN International and co-Chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
Conference Video sponsored by:
Health Sciences Association of Alberta
www.hsaa.ca
Conference Video produced by:
KTNEXUS
ktnexus.ca

[@thomasd2444]

0:05:45 - To introduce John Ralston Saul : www.gordonlaxer.com 0:06:45 - Great to see PARKLAND is Twenty Years Old 0:08:08 - PARADISE EATER (1988) 0:08:57 - He's written six novels 0:09:15 - One of his main themes : Isolated-Me (bowling Alone and goding Alone) 0:10:35 - 14 books translated into 27 languages 0:10:51 - 0:11:38 - Edmonton 0:12:05 - History 15:50 - 1850 0:12:30 - British Empire Re-write 0:12:55 - Harold Adams Innis : Canadian professor of political economy at the Univ. Toronto _________ and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory, and Canadian _________ economic history. 0:13:25 - How many have read THE FUR TRADE ? 0:13:35 - Travel Canada the Indigenous Way 0:15:45 - The Modern Theory of Communications 0:17:00 - 0:17:50 - A novel has a narrative 0:18:45 - Karl Paul Polanyi 0:19:00 - Ideologues (often blindly partisan advocate/adherent of a particular ideology) 0:19:22 - Ideologues share this with technocrats 0:19:52 - Refuse the importance of narrative. 0:20:03 - Ideologues (Abstract & Commodities & Banking) 0:20:15 - Narrow linear truth 0:20:20 - choice is always either or 0:20:42 - . . . a 3rd choice . . . complexity 0:20:52 - One of the ways you know you're caught in non-reality-ideology 0:21:52 - I remember the unpleasant 1970's 0:22:05 - Canada discovered it was not in control of it's oil 0:22:20 - Many people said we need to build a pipeline E-W in Canada 0:22:34 - Oil industry said with resounding self-assurance said 0:22:50 - A couple years ago the oil industry reversed itself 0:23:03 - That's gonna be difficult in a narrative novel 0:23:12 - Everybody's gotta completely change position 0:23:42 - The oil business is 0:24:16 - least involved with community 0:24:46 - community (or stable economy) 0:25:00 - Describing a reality - - not left argument - - not right argument 0:25:10 - Historically least attached to concepts of community & democracy 0:25:10 - Historically the industry most attached to anti-democratic activity 0:25:40 - Oil industry has no track record of working FOR democracy 0:25:57 - Said not as an attack 0:26:17 - Canada is a Petro-power 0:26:38 - Petro-Canada is filled with great people 0:26:42 - . . . the people who explore 0:26:55 - pipeline people are 0:27:10 - . . . we have to think seriously about what we have done in our 500-year past 0:27:40 - What rules were we able to place on a non-working industry to make it work? 0:28:24 - We need to know mistakes & risks 0:28:46 - National narrative 0:29:35 - Regional differences 0:30:00 - I listened to myself in 1997 and 2006 0:30:16 - 1996 I spoke about the rise of corporate-ism in the Mussolinian sense 0:30:32 - One of the biggest problems : Corporate-person to borrow money and limit liability 0:30:50 - Corporations no longer need that protection in law. 0:31:00 - Remove legal status of Corporations as people 0:31:17 - In 1997 I spoke about the rise of populism 0:31:32 - A sign of populism and mismanagement of commodities industry 0:31:36- The rise of GAMBLING AS A STATE ENTERPRISE to fund the state 0:31:43 - History is perfectly clear , over thousands of years . . . 0:31:47 - When governments depend on gambling the end is near 0:31:57 - The sign that the ruler no longer knew how to govern ; no longer knew how to _________ to find money from those who had money and was taking money from those _________ who were being tricked. 0:32:18 - On none of these fronts has action been taken 0:32:28 - In 2006 I talked about . . . 0:32:45 - I made one mistake on when the Iraq war would end 0:33:00 - The narrative of Canada : Not a 0:33:40 - A problem for how you're going to develop your economy 0:33:48 - Canada is the oldest continuous democratic federation : Not the USA 0:34:22 - Older than Switzerland by SIX months 0:34:28 - Canada has the strongest volunteer participation : 45 PERCENT 0:35:15 - 0:35:33 - 0:35:43 - Public education bill in 1842 0:36:15 - Almost the only country in the world to have a single-tier health system 0:36:30 - . . . Argentina (Per capita 1920 and today) 0:37:40 - Canada's narrative prevents us becoming a Euro-Ameri-class system 0:38:00 - We are all in it together 0:38:28 - We have slipped into an anti-intellectual mode since the 1980's 0:39:05 - With a far less educated electorate politicians spoke intellectually 0:39:15 - Winter ? Bored ? Canadians listened & discussed & learned & taught. 0:39:20 - Public discourse in Canada is intensely intellectual 0:39:47 - Slipping into a long anti-intellectual period 0:40:13 - Immigration 0:40:30 - Mid 19th-century 1830's : Within 3 to 7 years naturalized citizens 0:40:15 - No hanging around without becoming a citizen 0:41:40 - 85% of immigrants to Canada are CITIZENS within 5 yrears _________ USA 40% and Europe is having a heart attack over 10% 0:42:00 - 0:42:15 - Arrive : Engage : 5 years : Citizen : Welcome to the family 0:42:28 - Very few divorces (Connor Black of Forest, Ontario) 0:42:40 - 0:43:30 - Hiring Teachers 0:43:38 - Hire as many people as possible (Robert Baldwin 1842) 0:44:10 - 0:44:31 - . . . You're blocking the NEW CANADIANS from making their 0:44:41 - . . . inherited from Britain the self-governing societies 0:45:50 - Canada is not waiting for them 0:46:00 - 0:46:20 - www.6degreesto.com/article/6-degrees-citizen-space-2017-summary-report/ 0:46:30 - Immigrants and entrepreneurs 0:47:00 - Are we helping their desire? 0:47:38 - Few studies done 0:47:50 - Business schools not concerned with Canadians owning corporations 0:48:28 - Why would we sell them? We own them. 0:48:44 - Packaging industry in Montreal 0:49:14 - Beautiful factories 0:49:30 - Different international models 0:50:13 - Familes from Bangladesh 0:50:30 - Sending nephew to run it 0:51:03 - This is fantastic for Canada 0:51:31 - 0:51:48 - Where Blackberry came 0:52:18 - This is NOT . . . where can we put a pipeline ? 0:52:30 - Much more intellectual 0:52:45 - If not from new Rome (USA) or former Rome then cannot bully 0:52:55 - 0:54:00 - 0:54:20 - Corner store is same as govt. of Alberta 0:54:30 - The ability of the people to go into debt 0:54:53 - My book Voltaire's Bastards 0:55:00 - 1960's made-up-narrative that debt is bad 0:56:15 - The strength of Canada 0:56:50 - The GRAND was all done without the money : Money will follow 0:57:18 - The whole IMMIGRATION IDEA (1867) 0:57:37 - Europe has been accepting immigrants since WW2 0:57:50 - None have a Dept. of Citizenship & Immigration. 0:58:00 - Europe in total denial of their own reality 0:58:15 - A lesson to us : What happens when you deny reality? 0:58:25 - One quote from Wilfred Larie in 1905 in Edmonton : www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wilfrid-laurier-let-them-become-canadians-1905 On 1 September 1905, Wilfrid Laurier spoke before an audience of some 10,000 people in Edmonton, the newly minted capital of Alberta, which had just joined Confederation along with Saskatchewan. It had been 11 years since he’d last visited Edmonton, and he remarked that so much had changed in that time. He noted the growth of cities in the West, as well as the development of industry and transportation, agriculture and trade there. “Gigantic strides are made on all sides over these new provinces,” he said. It was a crowning moment of a movement - to colonize the West - and Laurier was there to thank the immigrants and settlers who had made that possible. Though the Laurier government’s immigration policies championed the arrival of some and barred the landing of others, his comments on acceptance in this speech served as a better model to follow. “We want to share with them our lands, our laws, our civilization. Let them be British subjects, let them take their share in the life of this country, whether it be municipal, provincial or national. Let them be electors as well as citizens. We do not want nor wish that any individual should forget the land of his origin. Let them look to the past, but let them still more look to the future. Let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children. Let them become Canadians… and give their heart, their soul, their energy and all their power to Canada.”

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Around 1:08:00 Speaker: Trading while you've a surplus of shoes is stupid because it drives wages down..... Wow such stupidity! You trade because you value the object in the other person's hand more than the object you're trading away. And no you can't have surplus of everything then that would mean our resources are infinite. So there will always be trade and it's wise to trade.

[@thomasd2444]

1:01:15 - I sell books in 27 languages. 1:01:35 - Since 1988 and the ENORMOUS GROWTH of TRADE : Little/no Canadian Growth 1:01:48 - Over a 40-year period : Very little growth; very little creation of full-time jobs; very little _________ created wealth shared by Canadian Citizens. 1:01:54 - The RETURN of a class system of RICH AND POOR 1:02:00 - 1:02:20 - The Trade Group of thinkers are not deep thinkers 1:02:30 - Just get rid of tariffs 1:02:49 - European Guild Deal : E.U. has the BIGGEST MIDDLE CLASS 1:03:30 - We owe a debt for opposing USA-demand that corporations may sue governments 1:03:45 - 1:04:00 - I've got children at home (I can talk to) 1:04:10 - Passivity of Canadians around trade issue is terrible 1:04:15 - If trade , then what trade and why trade? 1:04:40 - No great future in being obsessed by TRADE 1:09:10 - Return to the PRE-DEMOCRATIC MODEL of Govt. : FAMILY-COMPACT 1:09:29 - Purpose of Govt. IS : Give money to Family and prevent starving peasants 1:09:40 - Parkland Institute's VERY GOOD STUDY 1:10:10 - 1:10:25 - Be not so polite 1:10:44 - 1:11:00 - Not simply equal pay for women 1:12:00 - 1:12:30 - Interesting possibilities 1:13:45 - The public narrative and the public interest : Make money and not damage public good 1:14:25 - The Federal government tried to undo the complexity of Canada 1:15:07 - Rewarded short-term 1:15:30 - Canada has been relatively successful 1:15:43 - Putting in place the SAFETY FACTOR 1:16:00 - Safety is a part of doing business 1:16:25 - Commodity sector has always resisted the public good 1:16:43 - No other private or corporate person could say . . . 1:17:00 - A safe pipeline is a cost we pipe-liners cannot afford 1:18:00 - 1:18:30 - A pipe and a catch basin beneath 1:18:50 - Commodities 1:20:00 -