Canada Hates You
You can see it in their investment portfolio
We all have the ‘freedom’ of choice when it comes to who or what we support. Many of us like to take the moral high road, making our choices based on what’s right for the world and our health and well-being.
Perhaps we would not buy a certain brand or product due to the unfair or destructive practices of that company and therefore choose an alternative that looks out for the health of each other and makes the right choices when it comes to our environment.
That’s great, right?
Well yes, but there’s one thing that can not be avoided:
Where does your government invest your money?
I decided to conduct a quick internet search and was very easily lead to the investment portfolio for the Canadian Pension Fund. They mention ‘transparency’, which is awesome, but then they also mention that they are not disclosing ALL investments.
If you care for the environment and the health of our planet, taking a scroll through the investment portfolio of the Canadian Government will make your heart bleed. There are hundreds of companies, which mainly seem to include the following industries:
- Oil
- Gas
- Mining
- Tobacco
- Insurance
Some of the companies that jumped out at me were:
- Pfizer
- Monsanto
- Enbridge
- TransCanada
- Kinder Morgan
- Imperial Metals
These companies have all made the media in recent months for their negative contribution to our world and their destructive practices.
There are many protests against these companies from the people that live in Canada. As the government is supposed to work ‘for the people’, is there not a conflict of interest here with the government’s investment plan?
Oppression and Control
So, there are destructive companies that make a ton of money, which our government is invested in? So, if anyone protests these companies, the governments money is in jeopardy. It’s an easy fix though, because the police work for the government, so they just have to send the police along to protect their investment.
The complication here though, is that the funds invested in these awful companies are supposed to be for our pensions; the money we’re supposed to receive upon retirement. After working our entire lives and handing our tax money to the government, we are supposed to get this back with positive return. But this isn’t going to happen.
You see, the companies listed above have experienced a drop in shares over the last 3 months, my uneducated opinion tells me we’re heading towards some kind of financial collapse and we’re also heading into territory where it’s no longer cost effective to mine oil.
There is however a silver lining around this dark cloud — I noticed one company on the list called ‘Canadian Solar Inc’, a company that specializes in providing solar power to the world. Perhaps this is an indication of things to come?
What does it all mean?
Well for me, it’s upsetting that I have no control over the way the money I give to the government is invested. I spend my time and energy making moral choices to better the planet, only to find that a fifth of my income gets re-invested into destructive practices.
The only way to escape from this and secure your future is to exit the system.
The tiny house, permaculture movement is one way to lessen the burden of this system, but I am not yet certain that one can completely escape.
Land-shares, growing your own food, working the land and creating a life where paying your taxes is reduced to a minimum, is the only way we can begin to make a true difference. We all need to look after ourselves, become more self sufficient and less reliant on government handouts. It’s time to build resilient and tight knit communities that thrive, independently from the state. We need to turn to our neighbours and build something new, we can no longer perpetuate this broken system of economics.
I’d like to re-purpose the term ‘Cap and Trade’ and make it more about wearing a ‘cap’ and trading with your neighbour.
