Context
Community vs. Colonial Capitalism
By Heather McLeod, November 3, 2025
The need for Financial Planning is a symptom of a system that doesn’t work very well. I am a guide through a landscape full of potholes, dark woods and red herrings. I would be so glad to see our tax and wealth management systems healed such that I was out of a job. And I’m happy to join any effort aiming sincerely at improvements.
Some of these hazards I credit to the stubbornness of established ways of doing things such that new things tend to be stacked on top of old, rather than replacing them. But mostly I have come to blame this myriad of issues on Canada being a Colony. That’s the root of our entrenched habits of inequity and insecurity.
In short, Colonialism skews trade such that a few closely connected men with land and wealth enjoy more rights and opportunity than everyone else. Women and those without land or wealth (that is to say: the vast majority of us) are either a dependant of or property of these few closely connected men. They gained this power intergenerationally through unfair trade and military dominance undermining colonized communities’ capacity for autonomy until the Colonizing Trader extracts and dominates largely unfettered. Starting with their own communities – every member of a colonizing nation is themselves colonized.
I mean by Capital: something that took some effort to gain, and that provides on-going benefits. The Capital of colonialism is: workers, family, the planet, so many of its ‘resources’ and the companies built out of those resources. And the people that receive the benefits of Colonial Capitalism are the owners of large companies, those large enough to be traded on the market.
Further, large companies are too large to benefit
Since the Empires of the 19th century began to retreat, most of us now own shares in these companies and loan our money out to them (through GICs or bonds). We buy from them. We work for them. In Canada, everyone who’s ever worked has invested in these Global powers through their Canada Pension Plan.
In fact, we can’t achieve financial security without investing in global companies. Those CPP credits should replace about 25% of your average income as a pension when you retire. Old Age Security replaces another 10% of the average Canadian’s salary. And the rest of the income you need once you stop working you are expected to have invested (yourself or through an employer-sponsored plan).
Meanwhile that basic structure of ranked owners and their dependants remains a foundation stone which skews our rules of ownership, taxation and obligation. It is a blunt tool in the delicate world of relationships. It legislates poverty for the disabled and makes us heavily burdened by defensive measures against mostly imagined risks.
The route to better that I see most clearly is to shift away from colonial capitalism and instead actively supporting neighbourhood level community capitalism.
Examples of neighbourhood-level community capital would be:
- Infrastructure like water and waste systems, bike paths, power transmission and buildings in which to shelter and customize our surroundings.
- Gathering spaces like galleries & concert stages, churches, schools, community centres, parks and libraries
- Resources like repairing and replacing things; growing, storing, preparing and sharing food; healing and supporting healthy living; teaching and problem-solving
- Social relationships you can count on to help you, whose recognition of your value in their lives and your shared circles brightens and comforts you
You may look at that list and think: but don’t you need imported goods to build and maintain pretty much everything there? And you’d be right – but never have we had it easier to restore our local economies with greater capacity, starting with:
- Locally generated & used renewable energy
- Micro-manufacturing using local resources to meet local needs
- Repair – reuse services (to waste less of what we’ve already got)
- Locally grown, stored, processed and eaten food
- Neighbourhood-building spaces and initiatives to knit us together in familiarity
- Barn-raising style community infrastructure building initiatives
- Housing, Food, Education, Inclusion and Healthcare as a right, not a commodity
- Walkable fully serviced neighbourhoods (so travel becomes a choice, not a daily chore)
Small Businesses are the heavy lifters of our economy already, investing their personal resources (often beyond what mere math would recommend) in order to meet a need they identify where they live. But we all can do more than simply build our market-based portfolios with a responsible investing mandate. We can invest in neighbourhood-level community capital through:
- Community Bonds
- Charitable Giving locally
- Volunteering
- Neighbourliness
- Angel Investing in Local Initiatives
- Personal Loans (angel investing to family and friends)
- Join a Credit Union
- Land Trusts