Shooting the Hippo: Death by Deficit and Other Canadian Myths

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

What caused the federal deficit? An overgenerous social system? Or was
the Canadian economy deliberately sacrificed in the interests of a small
clique of bankers, politicians, and right-wing lobbyists? This book
makes a convincing argument for the latter view.

Linda McQuaig is an award-winning freelance journalist who has a
reputation for challenging Canadian financial myths. Drawing upon
federal government statistics and interviews with key players in the
Canadian banking system, she rejects the notion that Canada was
bankrupted by the soaring cost of health, welfare, and unemployment
benefits; instead, she lays the blame directly on the doorsteps of the
Bank of Canada and the Mulroney government.

According to McQuaig, in the early 1980s, the Mulroney government
allowed the Bank of Canada to artificially raise interest rates until
the Canadian economy stalled and then died. As businesses failed,
hundreds of thousands of Canadians who used to pay taxes began to draw
welfare and unemployment benefits instead. The Mulroney government then
borrowed money, at inflated interest rates, to pay for these benefits,
and the deficit soared even higher. McQuaig points out that the
government’s obsession with controlling inflation was mandated not by
the Canadian voter but by a small, powerful clique of wealthy bankers
and bond brokers. While average Canadians experienced the worst
recession since 1930, all five major Canadian banks enjoyed
record-breaking profits.

McQuaig presents her case in well-written, readable chapters. She also
writes with passion, sometimes not bothering to hide her contempt for
the people she believes are responsible for the suffering of hundreds of
thousands of Canadians. In the current deficit debate, hers is a voice
crying in the wilderness, but it is one well worth listening to.