Donald Gutstein

The Internet. We think of it as a marvellous, sprawling, open market, a worldwide bazaar in which ideas and information are free for the taking. But increasingly the Internet is becoming a commercial market for selling information. Corporations are beginning to wrest the Net from the people. And governments are helping the corporations, by selling them publicly financed information systems.

How the Internet Undermines Democracy

E.con

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Timothy A. Gibson

Robert A. Hackett

Richard S. Gruneau

The Missing News explores the role of newspapers in North America's complex media environment as vehicles for democratic communication.

Filters and Blind Spots in Canada's Press

The Missing News

Margaret Thatcher transformed British political life forever. So did Ronald Reagan in the United States. Now Canada has experienced a similar, dramatic shift to a new kind of politics, which author Donald Gustein terms Harperism. Among its key tenets: A weakened labour movement--and preferably the disappearance of unions--will contribute to Canada's economic prosperityCutting back government scientific research and data collection will improve public policy-makingEliminating First Nations reserves by converting them to private property will improve conditions of life for aboriginal peoplesInequality of incomes and wealth is a good thing--and Canada needs more of it These and other essential elements of Harperism flow from neo-liberal economic theories propounded by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek and his U.S. disciples. They inspired Thatcherism and Reaganism. Stephen Harper has taken this neo-liberalism much further in many key areas. As Donald Gutstein shows, Harper has successfully used a strategy of incremental change coupled with denial of the underlying neo-liberal analysis that explains these hard-to-understand measures. The success of Harperism is no accident. Donald Gutstein documents the links between the politicians, think tanks, journalists, academics, and researchers who nurture and promote each other's neo-liberal ideas. They do so using funds provided by ultra-rich U.S. donors, by Canadian billionaires like Peter Munk, and by many big corporations--all of whom stand to gain from the ideas and policies the Harperites develop and push. This book casts new light on the last ten years of Canadian politics. It documents the challenges that Harperism--with or without Stephen Harper--will continue to offer to the many Canadians who do not share this pro-market world view.

Donald Gutstein

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