[jlos]

Canada is intentionally setup to produce oligopolies as a defense against large American companies:

"Canada was, in a lot of ways, built on monopolies — think about the Hudson’s Bay Company or Canadian Pacific Rail. Canada has always feared that if we don’t let our homegrown companies get huge, we’ll get swamped by American competitors. That’s why there’s a tension between Canadian politicians, who often say they’re pro-competition, and the law, which incentivizes consolidation."

I think this strategy work well-enough until about 20 years ago. And by well enough I mean Canadian consumers weren't in an ideal situation, but things were good enough for most Canadians. Now the oligopolies have become basically predatory, gobbling up goverment funds and market capture wherever possible.

Case in point: our Temporary Foreign Worker program (who now make up 7% of the Canadian population) have not only strained housing, healthcare, and the job market it has even been called a "breeding ground for slavery" by the U.N. [1].

[0] https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/canada-monopolie... [1] https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g24/120/97/pdf/g24120...

[icegreentea2]

I don't think the temporary foreign worker program makes up 7% of the Canadian population (that'd be like 2.7 million people).

To be fair it's actually very annoying to find what the actual number is, but this study covering up to 2022 indicates that the number is probably no higher than 1 million (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2023010/artic...).

[vizzier]

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/co...

Probably the most up to date we'd get. I think your numbers are about right at around 1 million for temporary workers and students combined.

[daedrdev]

Which is a self reinforcing cycle as the badly run Canadian companies need state monopolies to remain competitive