This winter’s austerity budgets prove what has always been true: the Canadian state is a tool of the bourgeoisie.
Yes, friends, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.
—Irish revolutionary James Connolly, 1914.[1]
Canada’s ruling class is the bourgeoisie—the capitalist owners of mining and logging companies, real estate developers, utilities, banks, and more. The people who decide your worth, whether you deserve to work, and what you deserve to get paid for that work. As capitalists, they demand endless profit. But their profits are closely tied to US global economic dominance, and those profits are falling as the US empire shrinks.
The ruling class is making up for falling global profits the only way they know: redoubling exploitation and extraction at home. To meet this need, every level of government across the country is budgeting with an eye towards cutting back on the old concessions that workers and oppressed people fought to win; flipping the “savings” over to the ruling class to subsidize new and ongoing extraction projects. This year in Nova Scotia the response has taken many forms, including across the board cuts[2]–everything from the arts to education to public transport, the expanded exploration of gas fracking and uranium mining to create “real” jobs, and the intensified repression of the Mi’kmaw nation[3][4][5] (not by coincidence—the proper recognition of Mi’kmaw sovereignty could interfere with extractive industries like mining and fracking!)
This is certainly nothing new. The Canadian state has existed to make endless profit possible for the ruling class since its creation as a British settler-colony on native land. Confederation was carried through to completion by members of that ruling class exclusively. Of them, by them. The state-sponsored genocide of Indigenous people forced open the land so its natural and human resources could be extracted by capital. Working-class settlers (the settler-proletariat) did the labour needed for that extraction and the capitalist class rewarded them with some of the profits and land ownership (a right that was first only reserved for men, then later afforded to women). This gave the settler working class a lucrative shared interest in colonization. But the settler-bourgeoisie has always been the ruling class, and at times they’ve gone to great lengths to keep workers divided from Indigenous people; focused on land theft and never solidarity—because in fact the bourgeoisie exploits them both. For example, in the years before the North-West Resistance in 1885, Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald was deeply concerned of the potential for an alliance between disgruntled settler workers and the resisting Métis.[6] To disrupt any unity, his government took control of newspapers to spread anti-Indigenous propaganda and offered extra concessions to the workers to drive them apart from the Métis.
To this day the capitalist state, its governing parties, and the ruling class are working lockstep with each other. The current Premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston, was repeatedly cited in the Paradise Papers[7]: a comprehensive list of wealthy tax-dodgers leaked to the public in 2017. The papers showcased how large Canadian firms and wealthy individuals avoid taxes with offshore accounts. Houston has described his many years living in Bermuda managing the offshore financial affairs of the rich as a great personal opportunity to help international businesses “reach their full potential”. He is far from the only Canadian businessman/politician to be named. Former Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Brian Mulroney, and Queen Elizabeth were included as well. The list also details a who’s who of Canadian political party donors from all electoral party brands. Although there has been outcry in response to such clear proof of theft, nothing came from this list or other lists before and after. The ruling class protects its own interests above all else.
Since World War II, the Canadian ruling class has enjoyed enormous profits as the junior partners in American imperialism. Around the world Canadian capitalists have pushed neo-colonial and neo-liberal economic reforms, helping to violently overthrow those who resisted. They’ve used their extensive experience exploiting natural resources at home to lead many imperialist resource extraction projects worldwide—from the Global South to Europe. Three quarters of the world’s mining companies have their headquarters in Canada for a reason.[8]
To offer just one local example of this process, consider Nova Scotia Power Incorporated (NSPI). In 1992, what was then a provincial Crown corporation was sold to private investors for a cut-rate grand total of $192 million.[9][10] This was considered to be robbery even at the time! In 1998 the privatized utility was “restructured” to become a holding company named “NS Power Holdings”. It hit the Canadian stock markets for trading in 1999, and was renamed to “Emera” in the year 2000. Since then, Emera has expanded into various energy “markets”, acquiring production facilities and later entire national, state, and provincial energy grids across North America. With operations in multiple Canadian provinces, American states, Mexico, and Caribbean countries, Emera entered the New York stock exchange just last year in 2025. From an initial investment of $192 million to purchase NSPI—a publicly built and maintained energy grid and its production facilities—Emera and their investors have used the Nova Scotian utility and the people who rely upon it as financial leverage to acquire a total asset value of over $43 billion, from which to extract an annual profit of what was just under $500 million in 2024.[11] In 2025 Emera’s reported net income was $1.014 billion and saw the fourth quarter of 2025 deliver a record 19% increase in share earnings.[12] Capitalist profits have a tendency to fall year over year,[13] but the financial line must go up annually. If profits are allowed to consistently fall—be it within one company or the capitalist system as a whole—then the system fails. Electricity costs are forced to rise, an already dated electrical grid is squeezed, and the slow roll-out of new technologies which could help to address environmental degradation continues. This consistent extraction of value (from a grid that hasn’t changed much since its sale in 1992) to expand their energy empire means that today “Nova Scotia Power” represents the “worst performing” asset in Emera’s portfolio,[14] requiring continued state subsidies and annual rate hikes just to keep the lights on. We could focus on literally any sector within the Nova Scotian economy and see a very similar playbook. A process of extractive capital leaving austerity and crumbling physical and social infrastructure in its wake that continues unabated.
The superprofits the ruling class continues to make in this manner were once so lucrative that they could afford to make concessions to the Canadian settler working class. To a much lesser degree, they even made concessions to segments of the colonized Indigenous nations in the latter half of the 20th century. Ruling class concessions in regard to public healthcare, arts and culture grants, environmental protections, a false “reconciliation”, and more were well worth the price if they kept people satisfied enough to continue to identify with and participe in the settler-colonial capitalist system at home, and the global imperialist structure that further underpins it all.
However, the US empire is now scrambling to shore up its own imperial superprofits (bombing a total of 9 countries within the past year with Canadian support[15]), and the share available to partners like Canada is shrinking. The Canadian bourgeois ruling class cannot guarantee enough profit only by continuing to exploit the Global South. Now they must increase profits at home with renewed exploitation here as well. This is why they are suddenly giving the capitalists all sorts of new funding for their “nation-building” projects, paid for in part with cuts to past concessions won by oppressed people.
This general direction is not unique to Tim Houston or Mark Carney. All western nations and the vast majority of their electoral political parties are in agreement—the bourgeoisie must continue to profit. All Nova Scotian political parties campaigned on tax and service toll cuts during the 2024 provincial election. The NSNDP specifically ran on a tax cut for businesses and reductions to fees for vehicle licensing.[16] The Liberals promoted a 2% cut in the HST[17] after removing service tolls across the province during their previous administration. Our electoral parties only have slightly different suggestions for the best media approach—placate the masses or ignore them.
Let’s be realistic here, no budget compromise, reform, or fidgeting with highly inequitable sales tax rates will ever fix the fundamental problem: the class rule of the bourgeoisie and their legalized daily theft of Indigenous lands and the value of our collective labour. Taxes themselves represent only a small portion of the value created by workers, but what about the profit “tax” that represents the lion’s share of what is stolen? No program of austerity can ever be considered to be legitimate while this thievery continues.
Our current democracy represents nothing more than a dictatorship of capital over the land and the worker. We must organize independently of electoral politics dominated by the ruling class, not only so we can survive right now, but to one day change the system entirely. Political organizations recognizing the full national sovereignty and self-determination of First Nations in solidarity with Black communities, immigrants, and all oppressed peoples, can stand up in collective defiance of the ruling class to overthrow their rule. We can create a society where arts, public services, the environment, and true reconciliation are supported without exploitation, for the benefit of all people!
Collaboratively written, edited, and published by the membership of the Atlantic Regional Communists (ARC)
[1] James Connolly, “The War Upon The German Nation”, Irish Worker, 29 August 1914, www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1914/08/waronman.htm.
[2] Budget documents 2026 to 2027, Government of Nova Scotia, www.novascotia.ca/documents/budget-documents-2026-2027.
[3] Richard Cuthbertson, “Mi’kmaw fishers say DFO officers left them to walk for hours at night after seizing boots, phones”, CBC, 2 April 2024, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dfo-accused-after-mikmaw-fishers-say-boots-seized-1.7161195.
[4] Sis’moqon, “Atlantic chiefs call for ‘meaningful action’ after 2 First Nations men killed by RCMP”, CBC, 28 January 2026, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/atlantic-chiefs-call-for-meaningful-action-after-2-first-nations-men-killed-by-rcmp-9.7065040.
[5] Troy Littledeer, “Sovereignty is not theoretical: Why Mi’kmaq treaty rights are on trial in Nova Scotia’s cannabis crackdown”, Crosswinds, 9 January 2026, www.crosswindsnews.net/sovereignty-is-not-theoretical-why-mikmaq-treaty-rights-are-on-trial-in-nova-scotias-cannabis-crackdown.
[6] Tyler A. Shipley, Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, Fernwood Publishing, 2020, p. 68.
[7] Tim Bousquet, “Here are the Nova Scotians named in the Paradise Papers”, Halifax Examiner, 2 January 2018, www.halifaxexaminer.ca/investigation/paradise-papers.
[8] “In 2013, Canadian-headquartered mining and exploration companies accounted for nearly 31% of global exploration expenditures. In 2013, over 50% of the world’s publicly listed exploration and mining companies were headquartered in Canada. These 1500 companies had an interest in some 8000 properties in over 100 countries around the world” (“Canada’s Enhanced Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy to Strengthen Canada’s Extractive Sector Abroad”, Global Affairs Canada, https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/topics-domaines/other-autre/csr-strat-rse.aspx?lang=eng).
[9] Mallory Smith, “We’re still paying the price for privatizing Nova Scotia Power”, Nova Scotia Advocate, 12 May 2021, nsadvocate.org/2021/05/12/were-still-paying-the-price-for-privatizing-nova-scotia-power.
[10] Stephen Kimber, “Nova Scotia Power: the Houston government says ‘no option is off the table’”, Halifax Examiner, 6 February 2022, www.halifaxexaminer.ca/government/province-house/nova-scotia-power-the-houston-government-says-no-option-is-off-the-table.
[11] “Emera Reports 2024 Fourth Quarter and Annual Financial Results”, Emera, investors.emera.com/news/news-details/2025/Emera-Reports-2024-Fourth-Quarter-and-Annual-Financial-Results/default.aspx.
[12] “Emera Reports 2025 Fourth Quarter Financial and Annual Financial Results, Extends Growth Target”, Emera, investors.emera.com/news/news-details/2026/Emera-Reports-2025-Fourth-Quarter-Financial-and-Annual-Financial-Results-Extends-Growth-Target/default.aspx.
[13] See “2025 Financial Results”, ibid.
[14] Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol. 3, ch. 13, www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch13.htm.
[15] Abi McGowan, Molly Carlough, Natalie Caloca, “A Guide to Trump’s Second-Term Military Strikes and Actions”, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/articles/guide-trumps-second-term-military-strikes-and-actions.
[16] www.nsndp.ca/action-2024#pillar4
[17] Better Deal for Nova Scotians, p. 8, liberal.ns.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Better-Deal-For-Nova-Scotians-2024-NSLP-Platform.pdf