Canada's Biggest Influence

Canadians are chasing a dream founded on the marginalization of the many for the benefit of the few.

More than those with political influence, high net worth, strong lobbies in Ottawa and solid stock portfolios, I believe it’s an idea that most influences Canada, an idea of which Canada’s most influential are simply the most successful purveyors.

The Idea

The idea is deceptively simple: if you, the individual, work hard enough then you will be both prosperous and successful. Does this sound familiar? It’s the (North) American Dream and it continues to assure us into the 21st century that our dedicated and diligent hard work will result in financial stability, job security, and access to quality health care and education. It promises freedom from discrimination and oppression, equal access to justice, and the right to a political voice, just as long as you work hard enough.

Canada’s socio-economic system rests upon this idea of individual attainment through persistent hard work. Despite the remarkable technological advances and social innovations of the past 60 years, and despite the system’s shifts with emerging trends (out-sourcing) and contemporary images (iPhone), the central idea remains the same: your individual capacity to succeed is based solely on you working hard enough.

The Myth

The (North) American Dream is beautiful in its sense of hope and optimism for the future. Sadly, like so many beautiful ideas, it doesn’t translate well into reality. On the streets of Canadian cities, in depopulated rural communities, on impoverished Aboriginal reserves the (North) American Dream is nothing more than a myth.

The (North) American Dream reduces success or failure within our socio-economic system to the level of the individual. The result is those who are successful are lauded as individual wonders, while those who do not succeed are dismissed as individual failures. Within this context the cycle of poverty doesn’t exist, racial discrimination doesn’t exist; sexism, homophobia, poverty, globalization, colonialism, all of the systemic inequalities and oppressions that deny people prosperity and success simply do not exist. Instead the individual is demonized with the myth that they, personally, are the problem. The counterpoint to the (North) American Dream of individual success is that anyone who isn’t prosperous and hasn’t succeeded must have something inherently wrong with them.

So who most influences Canada?

Large portions of the Canadian population believe in the myth of the (North) American Dream, but only smaller portions benefit from it. Interestingly, the beneficiaries are also those that would fit the criteria for ownership: high net worth, healthy financial portfolios, political influence. Canada, I say, is owned by those who wield the greatest capacity to work this idea to their own advantage.

Ontario’s automotive industry certainly indicates that this is the case. Thousands of automotive workers have worked hard, often for a lifetime, only to be crippled by recent job losses and the evaporation of their pensions. At what point did they fail to work hard enough? The reality is that their capacity to work hard enough is irrelevant compared to the political, social, and economic clout already contained within the “individual wonders” occupying the upper echelons of the automotive industry.

Who do we want to influence Canada?

Or perhaps I should ask: what idea do we want to influence Canada? Personally, I am no longer interested in supporting a myth that amounts to a nation-wide pyramid scheme, where the success of a few is founded upon the marginalization of many.