This didn't start with the LIberal government and probably won't end with a Conservative government. Although he avoided mentioning it, the problems happened throughout both Conservative and Liberal governments in the past. The point is accurate - we need more competition but I doubt any government is going to do anything to help this along.

It should be illegal for companies to have subsidary companies under different brand names. That would make the monopolies visually obvious to everyone, so everyone can see the scale of the problem.

Good video with one glaring omission: not one word about the competition-killing Canada Dairy Commission. To protect a minuscule number of pampered farmers through tariffs and quotas, the rest of the population pays egregiously high prices for dairy products. As long as the Conservatives shy away from this issue, their call for more competition smacks of hypocrisy.

Totally agree with you. Canada needs more competition.

I remember when there was even a mention that version would come to Canada, Bell and Roger's stock fell 15% in a day. They would die within 3 years of US companies coming in.

Canada's federal government needs to force these monopolies to divest. But no government, Liberal/NDP or PC, will do that. It will piss off the richest people in the country.

Why would the federal government do anything about it when they’re getting most of the revenues from those exact same monopolies. When an election comes around campaign contributions come from the least competitive companies saying let’s keep it this way because I’m giving you shit load of money.

One flaw with your argument - the provincial Crown corporations like SaskTel allow for some of the most competitive prices within Canada for telecommunications. In fact, the big 3 then undercut the prices in Saskatchewan knowing they can make up the “loss” in the rest of the country. Government intervention in the economy is not inherently bad or anti-capitalist if it’s used as a tool to wedge open oligopolies and prioritize service over profits as part of creating a competitive market.

I really liked the monopoly game analogy, the economy does feel like we are living the game.

Every Canadian needs to hear this video, it needs to go viral.

Not to mention monopolies in minerals, lime stone and cement. Cement is too heavy to import from elsewhere, and Canadian concrete prices have increased 55% from 2020 to 2023, far outstripping CPI as well home price increases. Shortfalls in cement supply is hampering residential construction

Regardless of which party you support this is a message everyone can get behind

Excellent Video. Well done.

I was a solid NDP voter when I immigrated to Canada 6 years ago. Fast forward, I’m now solid Conservative! I hope there is a blue wave which actually does good such as splitting the monopolies, boost infrastructure spending in a variety of energy sectors, and if needed reduce taxes and public services.

Harper had 9 years to fix this and he did exactly nothing about it. Will Ryan's new boss, Poilievre, be any different?

What a great documentary. Many thanks from Québec.

Well done. TY.

This has been ongoing through all governments for generations. I doubt it will be stopped until the wheel breaks entirely

As a new arrival to Canada, having worked in tech here for a few years now it’s shocking to see the effects of this. There is a nation wide culture of lack of innovation in the c-suite of large companies. Conservative decision making at every corner and every decision made to appease share holders at all costs.

You won't hear ONE WORD from PP about the monopoly problem in Canada. He doesn't want to piss off his donors.

Same problem exists here in New Zealand. This is a global issue where govts have sold out their people and are working hand in hand with large corps. To a certain extent we did it to ourselves, we took the convenience and the low prices these companies offered in exchange for our freedom. If people are awake enough now, they should be doing everything in their power to support local business and their community.

Thanks for this. Big reason for affordability issues in Canada. Our gas prices went up 30 cents a litre in 2 weeks. Carbon tax? Nope. Greedy oil companies.Seriously doubt PP will fix this. He has been representing the interests of these companies his whole career. If he has a plan to fix it, I would love to hear it. What you just described at the end of the video will not do it. You think a startup company can compete with any of these behemoths? They will just buy them out or price them out. It's been happening for decades and nothing was done. You need to break up these companies.

You had me in the first half … cause the conservatives will not do what you say they will.

I completely agree with much of this - but in what alternate history has the conservative govt ever prioritized the little guy over monopolies?? Hell, they CREATED most of them (selling off Air Canada and Petro Canada, for example).

damn I didn't realize you were an MP until the end. Love that you're able to get your message across without paying for ads just because the message is that important

Incredible video both substance and viewing experience. Super insightful and cohesive content. Look forward to more such videos.

That was well put together and presented. We need to get this out to all Canadians. Make Canada Free.

Thank you for making a well-structured video outlining a pressing issue in Canada.

While the Liberals have been awful with consolidating companies, I doubt the Conservatives would do much better. Since it is the party of big business.

Monopolies are not antithetical to capitalism. They are result of unregulated capitalism. In its "natural" state, capitalism will result in monopolies, they are not a product of having lost capitalism. Even if one is a fan and proponent of capitalism, claiming that its shortcomings are not "real capitalism" and only acknowledging the positives of the capitalistic system is disingenious.

This is Adam Smith and Noam Chomsky 101 The inequality in Canada has been created over 150 years partly by a monarchy and by the policies of 3 major Canadia political parties. By lessening the control of the monarchy we now have a government that answers to absolutely no one. To consider Canada as any sort of democracy is a fantasy that even European leaders have denounced. Canada is massive and in abundance, and yet Canadians have suffered exploitation and inequality. When my parents arrived after the war they could not believe how destitute Canada and Canadians were, especially leaving europe, which was still mostly in shambles from the war. Of course, Canada is designed to be exploited as are the people that live and come to Canada. The new capital gains tax and anything else the government can come up with will further erode what is left of the middle class and with certainly aggressively go after the upper middle class. Since the 70s there has been an vicious power attack by elites to reduce the wealth and power of Canadians and our neighbors to the south. Each decade, taking more away from the people, and demanding longer hours worked and more production. If that wast enough industry was moved out of north America overseas to cheaper labor markets. Now corporations want to shift what jobs are left to a flexible workforce, further destabilizing peoples lives. Then you have have world migration of cultures that class some legal immigration some illegal but certainally all an unnecessary excess exploitation of the limited social resources that are left. The science now clearly shows people are now living shorter lives, more and more people are living in poverty, hunger has risen, homelessness has risen, medical disease has risen and education is unaffordable. Everything is pointing to a complete and total collapse of society in Canada, USA and many other democracies. Even the nuclear doomsday clock is at 9 seconds before midnight. "9 seconds before midnight" Does this not shock anyone? There is only hopelessness now for people. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely God save us all

Conservatives advocating for more government control of markets. What a time to be alive!!!

Thanks for the realtors for the inflation they created by pure profiting. Jail for scammers

Our biggest monopoly problem is the monopoly in government. You have only 2 viable choices in any given election, as the voting rules coerce you to choose from the top 2 parties. This allows your government to offer you a mediocre vision for Canada but still ensure that they can win. We need more competition in political markets first. The monopolies in commercial markets will not be solved until we break the monopolies in politics. Ryan, you and your Conservatives are part of the problem for not supporting a ban of FPTP to eliminate political monopolies.

Amazing video. Well presented.

Very insightful hope Trudeau is listening

Great video and 100% agree, however, is any government able to follow through with the needed changes? The goal of bringing Canada back to a Capitalist country, break up the oligarch's & monopolies and truly help the entrepreneur and startups launch.

HBTC is Canada. The queen adopted their charter.

... and aren't you an MP who was elected to fix that?

NOT 1 WORD THAT FORCED MIGRATION ( NOT TO ISREAL ) IS FORCED RENTS UP 30 %

Ill say this: Me and my future wife (23/20 years old) have completely checked out of the idea of building our family or buying a house in canada. full stop. We see so many issues with the country and so few benefits that cant be found elsewhere. Even if benefits such as 'free' healthcare exist, medical insurance + tax is ALWAYS lower than my taxes here. Many of my friends have expressed similar desires to leave - no one wants to dedicate their life to working a job where you never build towards any real legacy... everyone here is just a cog spinning to make someone else 100x ur hourly pay, the ei cheque collectors, or the boomers with amazing pensions from better times. in my opinion, the country has 5 years to do a full 180 or we are moving to south america... i dont have any real hope this will happen. Good luck.

Is your party willing to break up some of these monopolies and large companies?

Yep. It becomes super obvious when you try to make a startup here. There is regulatory capture embedded deeply in almost every industry, that make the cost of entry unfeasible.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! About time something was said. Just do not let us down!

I live in BC and we have one electricity provider, BC Hydro, and one natural gas provider PNG. Between the two I am charged $322 every month. I have a household of 2 adults/1child. We are pretty energy conscious. We live in the north which means we have only 2 phone providers, Telus and Bell. And they both charge the same prices.

Just the part about the crown corporation. I actually think they were mostly dismantle because bigger wanted to get into the market. Most crown corporations still in operation have a positive impact. Regarding one like lcbo, SAQ, SQDC, it’s a political choice to deliver the service through a public entities, and the current state of the market a voluntary state. So I do not consider them a problem.

One of the big issues is that we've made it impossible for companies to stay independent. If an owner wants to quit and divest, often the only way to do so is to sell to a large corporation. We need to start heavily enforcing antitrust laws, and break up more of these companies. And no, the Crown corps aren't the problem, they just have to be used correctly. The railroad monopolies can't be broken up because we can't infinitely build more railroads, the government needs to own the underlying infastructure for rail, telecom, and power to name a few. (telco infra should probably be municipal for example) If the government owns the infastructure like it does roads, anyone can operate on them, anyone can use them and develop products dependent on them. ISPs for example aren't monopolies because they're over regulated. In areas around the internet exchanges there's plenty of competition. It just costs million, maybe billions, to build enough fiber cables or cell towers to actually run a business, and that can't be be fixed with "less regulation", it has to be fixed by making the existing lines and towers open to anyone.

I actually have no problem with Crown Corporations because legally they would belong to all Canadians. Ironically when Ralph Nader deregulated airlines in America, a bunch of them merged. I find privatization doesn't solve monopoly problems. My solution is better opportunity for startups. (Edit: was halfway through the clip when I commented. I spoke too soon).

Williams avoids the most obvious solution, break up these monopolies and have strong anti monopoly laws eg. Regulation. Lots of hot air

You hit the nail on the head. Absolutely true.

Great video!

Major M&A have happened under both governments. 4 of 9 biggest deals happened under Harper’s Rule alone. Both parties have let Heather Reisman do whatever she wants in the book industry as she flip flops her support. 🤷‍♂️

So who is going to fix this problem in Canada??? I put my money on no one 😢

The banks especially are laser focused on protecting their investment, namely residential markets. They will move the universe before letting the real estate market in Canada correct itself, much like the way the US feds prop up the stock market. ACTUAL housing prices (not value) is about 80% less than what we are seeing, right across the country, no matter the type of real estate. We see the same thing with food and fuel. These three (food, fuel and housing) make up the basics of human needs. It is no accident that the feds are also involved on driving these costs, as they are the only true means of controlling the populace.

Why hasn’t someone created a party in Canada that focuses on ending monopolies and the commodification food and housing?

Leave the CBC alone. I am a proud Canadian and supporter of the CBC.

this video can be really hit or miss. it feels like a rollercoaster. at first im thinking, what a weird analogy, then he brings up milton freidman so i think, maybe hes gonna make a good point then he talks about how the government needs to do something then he talks about dergegulation as an austrian, i can only hope the best for you Canadians.

I really like these TED Talk-like videos, but only the Conservatives seem to be doing them. Competing videos would be much better, and much more useful, than the usual election debate. More please! (and a rebuttal Libs/NDP?)

They all need to be turned into worker owned cooperatives

More people need to see this, great video 👍 Why do we pay millions for pension staff when they haven’t even kept up with the gains in Gold for the past 40 years, what are we paying for?

Literally everything your party proposes will only entrench this even further…. Like 🙄

the right message. now please follow through

If things don't change and fast, it will take decades to bring Canada back to any level of what it was on the world stage and for the quality of life of most Canadians. Many are leaving faster than ever, Canada's brain drain is unprecedented, and business leaders and innovators are leaving for better lands and regions. Also, talking about the concentration of resources and monopoly, let's talk land! Did you know the governments in Canada hold about 90% of lands coast to coast to coast, not Canadians. In places like BC it's upwards of 95%! Yet people wonder why land and real estate is so high... look at the lands and who holds them! Time to bring home affordable lands for Canadians by allowing them to own them? Oh, and without property taxes for as long as you pay taxes on something, you will never own it. There is a better way. Let's get after this!

Great channel. Subscribed. Please fix Canada ! SOON.

Really good summary documentary, this is actually a good politician driven video!

Yes competition is and always has been the answer, but how do you end it when the politicians are taking kickbacks from the monopoly lobbyists to keep the status quo.

Big companies buy up high potential competitors, why wouldn't they do the same with politicians who advocate for policies that hurt their interest? I just hope it's not too late...

Some good news shared last week: A dozen of foreign retailers may come to Canada through current Industry Minister support.

How government should stop this from happening, if a business can benefit more from selling it to a bigger one than keeping running it by self. I feel this is just natural fact of capitalism itself, maybe not how the capitalism started, but almost 100% how the capitalism will end, just a matter of time. I don't think other major G7 countries on a better track.

Wait so we privatized all our public corporations in the 80s, and then just after that everything got way worse? Gosh golly gee I wonder if those two events are related somehow 🤔

We need more campaigns like this, more focus on things that matter.

Agree with all of it, but there is one point that keeps bringing back these monopolies: density. The government trades off development in areas of Canada that are hard to develop with giving protections to back the investment. At least this was the original driver. For instance, Bell, a company I loath, puts telecom lines into places that would not otherwise have it. Rural density is a challenge in a country that is so spread out. Modern technology has improved this situation, so maybe it's time to finally get serious about anti-monopoly laws. PS: it was HBC that gave territories to get people to take the risk of harvesting the resources, knowing that their investment in doing so would not be highjacked by those hearing of the riches they found.

This was great right up until they started saying conservative is the answer. Trudeau made be horrible, but does anyone remember Harper? Conservatives CONSISTENTLY slash services and pocket it. The make “Independent” businesses that are all linked to either companies they privately own or have ties and relations with. The answer is not to vote conservative, in fact, like always, the answer isn’t even in the hands of the people. We have been muscled out of the economy completely just like we did back in the day of the hudsonbay company, and the answer is the same as it was back then. We got here because of government corruption, and now it’s up to the government to fix it by dissolving this mess they made and letting us back into being able to control the government and economy.

I agree with you about the corporate monopolies and oligarchs, but the private equity firms own the political parties and PP won't break up the monopolies, his campaign advisor is a lobbyist for one of the grocery monopolies. Harpo never broke up monopolies so why would PP?? he won't.

Well done!

I live in Trenton, Ontario and I can’t believe that Ryan Williams is cool. I just thought that almost 100% of Canadian politicians are bad. I don’t follow Canadian politics I guess. Go Canadian politicians!

Monopolies are encouraged by government as they are the only ones who have the resources to navigate the increased regulation

Great Content 🔥💯💯💯💯

I agree that this is a big problem, but I don't see the Conservatives fixing it. In fact, everything I see shows me that the Conservatives only line the pockets of their wealthy friends. Look no further than Ford and his developer buddies. Sadly, monopolies and oligopolies are the Canadian way for all political parties.

Excellent video very good points, but your silly little point about this is getting way worse because of a liberal and NDP government… Dude give me a friggin break. It has not been those two parties or just the conservatives. It’s all the parties this goes back to the Reagan economic era 1980s where everything is deregulated, and the conservatives have been leading the charge with that kind of stuff. I mean you said they deregulated all of the airlines and trains and everything that was that wasn’t a liberal thing that was a conservative thing. The one glaring problem, your video lacks in all of its great stats for the social well-being of our society. Is that big businesses have way too much sway over government policies. Politicians are owned and political parties. That’s why you can’t extricate the beer store from Ontario because they contribute millions of dollars to whichever political party they think is gonna win. There was some great investigative journalism about this probably a decade ago and nothing was done. I really applaud you for making this video and saying these things now break those stupid companies up and get rid of all the lobbyists that will prevent that from happening. These companies are too big and financially powerful. They need to be smaller so that armies of lawyers cannot prevent change from happening.

There needs to be more regulation and a break up of the monopolies. Surprise that a conservative of all people is talking about this

It can easily be solved by abolishing the payroll tax.

They are afraid of American competition

1. It's not a canadian problem. The modern western world is wholy shifting towards an overclass-ruled society. This is ongoing since the 1970s with the appearance of reaganomics, which has proven Many times to be harmful for the working class. 2. It's very hypocrit coming from the CPC since they have been taking the corporations side since decades. As top doners for the party are real estate owners and corporations, they are obviously not goimg to take our side even with this nice PR video. 3. Deregulating is what causes monopolies. He said the corporations were overregulated, thats not true. Its the fact that that work was done to add loopholes in regulations. So its not that we added regulations, we made them easy for corporations to not follow them. Keeping his own analogy: there are very few rules in the Monopoly game, thats why It always ends with one guy owning the board and everyone else is poor 4. Please use judgement when listening to this video. He lists the problem everyone agrees exist and does not correctly explain why this context is true today, and his solutions are what his party along with the liberals have both been doing for decades: Reagan politics: let the businesses do their thing, they know what is good for us. When you play Monopoly, do you care about howt the other players are doing? No. We need to regulate our markets with strong anti trust rules just like i the 1950s Up to 70s..

Honestly, maybe a socialist government with a lot of intervention might turn this weakness into a strength... Look at things like SaskTel and Hydro Quebec, or the 50% gov owned hybrid approach in Norway... Thing is, our political parties will always protect the interests of the wealthy

Conservatives can pass bills whenever they want even as official opposition. So what legislation have y’all tabled?

I don't know about other industries but I know the core reason for airlines. If capitalism was truly allowed in Canada, a number of cities wouldn't have ANY airlines flying into them or prices average people couldn't afford. Our country, much like Australia is too thinly populated. Every Canadian government runs into the exact same problem. Encourage competition and towns and small cities lose core transportation, especially to the north. Air Canada is hamstrung by contracts to provide flights to unprofitable destinations. I don't know if we could shift to government run passenger rail to these destinations? That's what many of them relied on before the advent of planes providing transportation.

Opening up the borders to American/foreign companies would be disastrous for Canadian companies. Take Air Canada for example. Opening up to Emirates (an oil country subsidized luxury airline) would decimate Canadian airlines - only have to look at Australia and Qantas Airlines. The consumer would have more/cheaper options, yes, but the local GDP in terms of producing/jobs would be decimated. Catch-22 of sorts.

Canada is a miniature China of the West -- no competition allowed

This is incredibly well done. It’s not rage bait. It’s not just a bunch of blaming. It’s a great video and the CPC should promote the hell out of it.

Ryan what are your thoughts on increased capital gains tax?

Canada is the only developed country that does not have any anti trust laws. It's not the carbon tax that is making every thing so expensive. We are making plans to leave. Will the last one out please turn off the lights?

Remember to vote wisely!

Canada uses Newcomers to pay pensions of old Europeans through tax

The best and most explainatory exemple of this is maple sirop. In quebec they unionised the production, distribution and exportation of it in a state monopoly. Since price could be dictated, no investment were made in modernizing the production and despite producing 80% of the world supply, all the innovation came from the US, if it weren't for them, we'd still be using 3 gallon buckets and horse to harvest it and would cost more than liquid gold.

Good luck getting more start ups & competition. The 2024 capital gains tax increase by the Liberals just threw cold water on that.

Everyone can thank Trudeau for this

thank you

super hard core leftie here, but totally won over by this video, ive been complaining about this since i moved here from the UK, to be honest i really dont like Poilievre, be honest would Poilievre help with this actual problem, ive sold that he would make it worse....to be honest Ryan I would jump to conservative if you were leading the party....however where do you stand on gay marriage? Ive met Ryan very briefly, hes a super nice guy but we need someone to break all this culture war bs and start having good conversations

Very savvy & slick. I'm politically unaligned & think this was well made. Yet, unchecked greed & such is how this situation came to be. Humans, as a sentient species, needs to reign in it's greedy nature & grow up otherwise we are truely dead. If you believe in a min wage to 'survive' to service others better off than yourselves without capping the greed (max wage)... what can I say. When we ALL can afford to actually 'live' I will consider what politicians actually say. More likely, I'll believe it better or more when I see it in real time. A pre-maturely forced 'retired' & unemployed CAF Vet.