Canadarm?

There is a disturbing subtext to the sale of the space division of the Canadian tech company MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.

The sovereignty issue is a glaring one, and our foreign policy could use some work, but that's not the thing that concerns me the most. It's that our government is so quickly willing to consider selling off an asset that has used a significant amount of public funding (according to the Globe article - $400 million), and is an important piece of Canada's high-tech economy.

The Conservatives are showing a very strong hard-right version of economic policy. The idea of selling off corporations and assets that were funded using public money is not new, and it certainly has a precedent of screwing the seller. In the end the seller is left holding a bag of money that is quickly becoming less and less valuable, as their basic as well as their innovative industries are held by foreign multinationals.

I highly recommend reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It explains this approach in detail, and shows how it is ultimately a carnivorous experience for the country that is selling off their assets.