Corporate Control by Nora Loreto
Why Canadian politicians appear powerless against corporate Canada
The joke goes that Canada is three mining companies in a trench coat. Or three oil companies in a trench coat. Or three telecom companies in a trench coat. It's funny because it's almost true: there are only a few corporations that exert a disproportionate amount of power over Canadian democracy.
Corporate profits are at a record high, and the divide between the rich and poor has never been wider. Canadians are struggling with affordability, a housing crisis, and wages that don't cover basic needs. The combination of these forces is a pressure cooker that politicians have promised to tackle, except they can't: they are too restricted by corporate power to confront the roots of the problems that Canadians face.
The first book in the Canada in Decline series examined the rise and fall of Canada's social safety net. In this next volume, Corporate Control, activist, author, and journalist Nora Loreto goes further, identifying why Canadian politicians seem impotent in the face of corporate Canada.
(From Dundurn Press)
Corporate Control is available in May 2025.
Nora Loreto is an activist, author and journalist based in Quebec City. She is the editor at the Canadian Association of Labour Media and co-hosts the political podcast Sandy and Nora Talk Politics.