America Has Wiped Out Its Middle Class. Time for Canada to Follow Suit?

That's likely the message Harper FinMin and garden gnome Jim Flaherty will get when he gets together with his future employers top Canadian CEOs for his annual summer "policy retreat."   Flaherty, it seems, wines and dines the Big Boys and they return his generosity in the form of legislative wish lists.   Here's what they dished up last year.

According to documents obtained by the Globe and Mail, at last year's sessions the minister was urged to adopt measures to reduce the pay of Canadian workers, limit union power by enacting U.S.-style right-to-work legislation, and allow two-tier health care.

Labour issues surface in several discussion categories, with the general view that Canadian workers are overpriced.

"Need to address wage differentials in labor market among countries; we are losing jobs to other countries," reads a point-form summary of one of the discussions.

"Right to Work legislation should be pondered as it creates inequities in productivity; US example was provided."

There were also calls for a higher retirement age and to open Canada's shipping, telecom and airline industries to more foreign competition.

The CEOs are certainly bold enough but they know that, in Flaherty and Harper, they're dealing with the most corporatist government in Canadian history.

Corrupters' Coven Assembles Today in New Orleans

Bush Greeting ALEC, 2007

State legislators from every corner of America are flocking to New Orleans today, summoned to the Big Easy by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.   ALEC is the clearing house for Big Business's legislative whims.   Elected officials show up for a closed door session, get their marching orders in the form of business-proposed legislation, collect their parting gifts and return to their respective assemblies to do as they're damned well told and bugger the voting public.

PR Watch reports industry giants such as Koch Industries, Bayer, Kraft, Coca-Cola, State farm, AT&T, WalMart and Philip Morris will be on hand to unveil their wish list legislation.

ALEC is little more than a bill factory for corporate-friendly legislation that often repeals people’s rights or fattens the corporate bottom line. We think citizens have a right to know that these Fortune 100 firms “have a voice and a vote” through ALEC on bills before they are introduced in state houses, cleansed of the fact that corporations already voted on them. ALEC’s hot bills lately have sought to require voter ID, promote tobacco products flavored to appeal to kids, privatize Medicare and Medicaid, privatize prisons and public schools, and legalize the harassment of immigrants.

ALEC’s arsenal includes bills to make it harder for people to band together to negotiate with employers through unions.  The ALEC “Public Employee Bargaining Transparency Act,” proposed by Rep. Anthony Ligi (as HB204), was rationalized on the claim that “Increased transparency in labor negotiation meetings and documents serves to provide all parties to the negotiations with an incentive to avoid any hint of corruption; Open sessions and increased oversight help ensure that government is using taxpayer money effectively.” Perhaps Ligi will sponsor a bill to open ALEC's task force meetings, where corporations and legislators vote, to similar sunshine and require disclosure of ALEC’s corporate donors “to avoid any hint of corruption,” especially since taxpayers pay many legislators’ ALEC dues.

Cash-strapped, as in all but bankrupt, Louisiana is forking out $50,000 for 31 legislators to attend the ALEC conference in - Louisiana.

Only in America, eh?