On Sept. 14 to 15, Mark Carney held a private summit for some of the world’s richest CEOs and investors. At the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, hidden away from the eyes of any normal person, the capitalist cabal discussed the future of the Canadian economy.
Very little is known about what was actually on the agenda. But the stated goal was to attract investment. Guests were shown some 167 infrastructure projects and invited to buy-in. These included mines, ports, and energy and power projects.
In response to Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state, Carney has stated that Canada’s not for sale, but that is clearly a lie. Here we see his government bending over backwards to sell invaluable natural resources and key levers of the economy to the highest bidder. They’re helping the rich get even richer.
Capitalist ‘democracy’
We’re told constantly that capitalism is the only truly democratic system. But here, we have a wonderful illustration of how the system actually works.
The meeting included powerful capitalists and billionaires from all over the world. The guest list was largely kept private. But some of the names that have been revealed include Teck Resources CEO Jonathan Price, Bombardier CEO Éric Martel, Suncor Energy CEO Rich Kruger, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, as well as representatives from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund, and China Investment Corp.
Put together, those in attendance control nearly $120 trillion in assets.
These people were given two days of direct access to Carney and all 13 of the countries’ premiers. In addition, important cabinet members like Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc held “investment sessions”.
We get to elect a parliament every four years, but it’s at meetings like this where all of the real decisions are made. Through big summits and small private meetings alike, the world’s powerful and wealthy meet behind the scenes to rub shoulders, make secret dealings, and bring demands directly to the politicians.
The government’s role is to facilitate this. As Marx and Engels pointed out in The Communist Manifesto, “the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie”. Here we find a very direct example of that.
In reality, capitalism is the furthest thing from real democracy. It is the rule of secretive gangs of unelected elites.
Workers will pay
We may never know the full details of what was discussed. But what has been revealed gives a pretty good indication. In his opening speech, Carney announced two new measures fully designed to please the billionaires.
First, the government will be opening up concessions for private companies to take over the running of the country’s four biggest airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. This is, in effect, privatization of the most important airports.
Capitalist rags like The National Post claim that this will make airports cheaper and more efficient. But this doesn’t even make sense from a pro-capitalist perspective. In theory, free competition is what’s supposed to push prices down. But the big airports hold an effective monopoly on international and long-distance domestic flights.
In practice, this is going to mean even more price-gouging, at a time when flying is already unreasonably expensive for the average worker.
Second, Carney promises a “mega” tax deduction for businesses. The federal government plans to slash taxes on business investment from 13 per cent to 6.4 per cent. According to Carney, this is “less than half the U.S. rate, roughly one-third the OECD average and one-quarter of the G7 average.”
This is a massive gift to the country’s capitalists. And it will come at a cost. Even Doug Ford, who supports the measure, admits that it will lead to a $2 billion drop in tax revenue for Ontario alone.
At a time like this, when the government is saddled with massive debt and Carney is promising tens of billions of dollars worth of hand-outs to the biggest corporations, such loss of revenue is completely unsustainable.
The arithmetic is very clear. To pay for this, the government will have to attack the working class. This “mega deduction” only increases the pressure on the state to impose harsher austerity.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper spelled this out explicitly in his closing speech at the summit. He said that “to maintain that sovereignty, we must pursue diminished reliance upon the United States. There will be significant costs to this effort, but those are costs that I hope and believe Canadians are able and prepared to accept.” (our emphasis)
In other words, workers will have to suffer through worse healthcare, education, and public services, all so that the rich can get richer. This is the inevitable outcome of capitalism.
Expropriate the billionaires
It doesn’t have to be like this. Society has the wealth for both economic development and good schools, hospitals, and social services. The only problem is that it’s being hoarded away.
Between 2024 and 2025, the wealth of Canada’s billionaires grew by almost $95 billion, or around 20 per cent. The top one per cent in the country now control $3.9 trillion.
At the same time, these people refuse to invest in production. Business investment in machinery, plants, IPs, and equipment has stagnated at around 11 per cent of GDP for the past decade. The government has to beg, push, entice, and often just take on the costs of investment themselves if they want to get anything built.
The capitalists are sitting on unbelievable fortunes, and at the same time have the gall to demand more tax breaks and hand-outs, so that they can get even wealthier without having to take on any serious risk. It’s incredible how parasitic capitalism has become.
In response to criticisms of Carney’s investment summit, capitalist apologists retort, “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want investment?” Revolutionary communists are in favour of investment—we simply ask “in whose interest?” and “under whose control?”
With capitalism in crisis, the bourgeoisie are only willing to invest if they are guaranteed that they can reap the absolute maximum rewards while contributing little or nothing to society. The only way out of the crisis is for us to expropriate these parasitical billionaires and use this immense wealth, which was produced through the labour of the working class, for the good of society as a whole.
Expropriate the billionaires!
