Written by Greg Nikolic

Made in Canada

Certain multinational companies based in Canada have been whistling pretty despite the Trump administration’s baleful eye toward the country — an attitude motivated by American needs and the realities of trade that prevail in today’s world.

WSP Global, a Quebec-based engineering firm with 75,000+ employees and tentacles worldwide, remains positive on the American situation. Although the infrastructure monies allocated by the previous administration were “paused” by Trump, there is still a good chance that the current administration will see the need for improvements in bridges, roads, and electrical systems continentwide. And even if it doesn’t, there’s plenty of peaches on the table to be diced and sliced and devoured piecemeal.

WSP Global CEO Alexandre L’Heureux said he was feeling “extremely good” about his firm’s prospects in the U.S. He knows the market for large-scale engineering talent is limited. There’s only so many firms you can go to to get the job done, and they share an oligopoly’s profit maximization guarantee. North American work took up 60% of WSP’s job roll, with America being the #1 site for said work. American states and municipalities remain friendly to foreign concerns that offer the best bang for the taxpayer’s buck.

The pandemic uncertainty birthed over the past few years dwindled in importance as things returned to normal, and it is business as usual once again. Inflation has eaten into profits for some, reflecting the tsunami of government stimulus pump-priming, and others responded by ratcheting up their selling prices. The overall situation — WSP Global would be no exception to this — dictates that most companies saw their profit margins improve. Years of stagnant inflation and price restrictions were slain like a dragon by a St. George figure of corporate greed and malfeasance.

WSP Global has been on a buying spree for new companies over the past few years, adding thousands of new workers through mergers and acquisitions, and the company has a raging hard-on over the possibilities of deregulation implicit in any new Republican administration. With business society entering a more permissive phase, a “Summer of Love” patina-effect could glow around new proposals to get ever-larger, ever-more dominant, and ever-more-oligopolistic. Remember always that the biggest companies are most immune to downturns and can virtually set their own prices, regardless of what the customers say. Size matters in business, and gigantism is the trend universally in sector after sector of the economy.

There is an implicit assumption at the heart of WSP Global’s actions and those of its worldwide transnational peers. Namely, the time to get big is early on, before the low-hanging fruit is snapped up. WSP Global, for instance, added 4,000 employees and countless contracts of Power Engineers Inc., reaching out from Quebec to grab the low-hanging fruit of Idaho’s rolling farmlands.

Because oligopoly is so desired by business, and because genuine competition is feared by them, there are moves afoot in every sector to get bigger, quick. As big as possible, in fact. Recently, two book publishing companies were barred from merging because star authors like Stephen King testified against their merging, warning that authors’ negotiating position would be eroded thereby. As we see in the Information Technology sector, with giants Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Meta (Facebook), wages are suppressed artificially when only a few large companies corral all the available talent and hog their presences. For every company-sponsored soda pop and meal, there is $100 going down the urinal drain for the employee who could have been paid better in a true free market for employment. No doubt the workers of Power Engineers Inc. will have their salaries capped by the existence of a large-scale domineering firm that dictates their every action.

I am not pro-Union, but it is obvious to me that big companies have every edge, whether it means delayed payment of their invoices or control over their workforces. The law of the jungle — written in blood over thousands of generations in the wild — has been transmuted to the modern business world in the way we orchestrate, organize, and officiate over our corporations, those entities which have been given the legal rights of “people.” A corporation is a weapon to be wielded against society when it suits its masters. Nothing can change this intrinsic fact. Multibillionaire Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post and can be assumed to be pushing for a certain slant on the news. If he isn’t, the possibility always remains open that he will. WSP Global, the tech largescale firm, may elect not to raise prices once it is one of three large firms, but can we really trust them not to do so? The ultimate goal for Bezos, WSP, and Apple is to quash all competition and emerge supreme on the Risk-like (game) map of the world. We’ll see if the government lets them get away with it.

8 thoughts on “Made in Canada”

    1. CHRISTOPHER! You made it to my not-so-humble site! I urge you to keep posting comments and reading along with me, and I’ll be sure to give my thoughts and expressions (and compliments where merited) about your extremely ORIGINAL and INTERESTING site!

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  3. Made in Canada, extracted everywhere else.

    You paint Canada as some innocent bystander, another victim of ruthless multinational corporations. But let’s not kid ourselves, Canada isn’t being exploited by the system; it’s actively benefiting from it as well. Canadian companies are major players in global resource extraction, expanding mining and agribusiness in Brazil, accelerating deforestation, and profiting off cheap labor in the Global South, all while maintaining a squeaky-clean international image.

    WSP Global? Brookfield? Barrick Gold? These aren’t helpless firms struggling under corporate oppression. They are the corporate oppression. Canadian multinationals aren’t out there competing on a fair playing field; they’re leveraging the same economic structures that keep wages low, resources cheap, and profits flowing north. The way you tell it, Canada is just another casualty of globalization, when in reality, it’s a key player helping sustain the whole system.

    And let’s be honest, Canada, like every other dominant economy, has never been interested in real competition. That’s why they push this rhetoric of “striving for the best” and “healthy antagonism” instead of cooperation. Because real competition, the kind that levels the playing field, would mean losing some of their economic privileges. So instead, they push narratives that keep everyone divided while they consolidate power.

    You’ve been to my blog a few times now, always trying to paint me as just another tankie. But I’m someone living on the periphery of capitalism, and I have eyes and ears. I read the news in Brazil and around the world. And from where I’m standing, it’s clear, this game was rigged from the start.

    Just look at the dollar system itself, the biggest scam of them all. The entire global economy is rigged to keep the U.S. dollar as the center of gravity, and countries like Brazil end up trapped in a financial system that serves American interests first. Our interest rates are directly influenced by the Federal Reserve, even though we have a huge internal market, a strong currency, and the potential to act independently.

    But can we? Not really. Because the moment a country in the Global South tries to break away from dollar dependence, the whole weight of the financial system comes crashing down, capital flight, currency devaluation, external pressure from rating agencies, the IMF breathing down our necks, if not the worse, the infamous economic embargos. Brazil isn’t some tiny economy that needs to be following Washington’s lead, yet here we are, still adjusting our monetary policy to fit the needs of a country that doesn’t care if we sink or swim.

    Meanwhile, Canadian and American companies get to take their profits in dollars, repatriate their wealth without consequence, and keep our economies permanently subordinated. And they call that a “free market.” So no, Canada isn’t some victim of corporate greed. It’s a beneficiary of a system designed to keep countries like mine dependent.

    Nothing against Canada. Nothing against you personally. And definitely nothing against the people of Canada. I’m sure you’re great, hardworking, with strong values, well-educated, and honestly, probably the kind of neighbors anyone would want. I’ve got no doubt that if we lived next door to each other, we’d get along just fine.

    I’m just sharing my honest opinion because you asked for it. No hard feelings. I’m not here to start a fight, just laying out how things look from my side of the world. If anything, I think these are conversations worth having. We don’t have to agree, but at least we can acknowledge that the way the world is structured doesn’t just happen by accident. Anyway, as the philosopher would say, Ξέρω μόνο ότι δεν ξέρω τίποτα.

    That’s it. That’s all. Thank you for commenting on my blog.

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    1. I never painted WSP Global as an underdog or long-suffering naif. But first of all, let me say I take no offense in your comment. It is refreshing to have a visitor with such in-depth knowledge of global affairs as yourself. Guaranteed the average Canadian wouldn’t have an equivalent understanding of Brazil. BUT again, this was just a general economic piece. It doesn’t have to take sides to state the fact that WSP Global, the Canadian firm in question, has been scooping up companies and has a rather smug outlook on itself. My near-pro-union-stance should have ameliorated your wrath somewhat, it apparently didn’t, strangely enough. That’s something we can both agree on.

      Keep visiting dark.sport.blog and keep commenting!

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