Canada's Economic Charter of Rights!

Frank Stronach's Answer to Implement Change & Eliminate Poverty!

A struggling tool and die maker from Austria, who lived and survived through the Depression, hopped on a boat in 1954, at age 22, and landed in Canada with $40 in his pocket. That $40 has since MAGNA-fied into a multi-billion dollar auto-parts, global empire. What is the answer to Frank Stronach’s success?

Frank: “I have seen the lowest of the low and the highest of the high. It was strange when I was hungry, and not because we had no money to buy food. When we were younger, we hustled a bit, to make some money so that we can all live in dignity.”… Read on…

“I have built over 440 factories in 34 different countries. I could live in any of the 34 countries in dignity. I chose Canada, a great, great country, but we are losing it by default. We have to wake up!

What do I mean by that? One thing that all the politicians agree, all the business people agree with, ‘if the economy doesn't work, nothing else will work.’  You cannot feed the hungry, they cannot look after the most fragile people, the elderly, the sick, the handicapped! But, interestingly enough, we do not talk about what drives the economy.

The economy is the most important subject about everything, because you cannot build a hospital if the economy doesn't work, you cannot look after the sick. It's the economy… the economy… the economy!!!

The economy is driven by three forces: Smart managers, hard-working employees and investors. All three have a right to the outcomes, which is profits!

The message I want to get across loud and clear is that “without workers, we cannot make a profit.” So, workers have a bold right to some of the profits that generate scholarships.

So, we are going to ask ourselves, since it is so logical, “Why do we not have an Economic Charter of Rights?”¹ For the simple reason, the world has always been dominated by the golden rule. It's the people who have the monies and generate the monies that make the rules!

You don't see the kings anymore. The rich people may be in Hawaii, might be in Beverly Hills, and they might be in Monaco. But they’re there and they don't want to share the profits with the working class. That's the dilemma!

The question is, “How can we dismantle the chains of terminations?” Not by violent revolutions, but by a revolution of the mind.  A revolution of the mind will have to fall in place, such that workers who help create profits should get a portion of the profits.

I'm not preaching that we should take away from the ‘rich’.

We go through an evolutionary process. Look way back to the cave man, the hunter and the hunted, the kings and the servants… Now we have the bosses and disgruntled employees.

The reason I have done so well… I started in a garage, then built up a company with 80,000 employees.

Every day I went to work I asked myself, “What do I have to do so that workers respect me?” So, we have the most innovative human resource structure, where we can flush out everything that is incorrect. Because in the final analysis, you can only build a company when you have happy employees. And about one third of our labour force, we employed 60,000 women and about 120,000 men. It's Labour Relations asking constantly, “What do we have to do so that employees are happy?”

In a nutshell, this is what is driving me. And I have been writing a column in the Financial Post for the past few years. The last few months I got into more details and I knew I would wind up with some poisonous errors.  When you look you see all the signs all over.

About 50 years ago, when computers came on the market, a slogan was “If you get one of those computers, you could eliminate a total office floor!” Now I see 20 times more office products. What do they do in there? Regulations, regulations, regulations!! There are so many Regulators that make it very difficult for the people. One of two things: We have one or two people who can really do things, and more and more Regulators. So basically, the Regulators make all the regulations so that they can increase their salaries. So that's the dilemma we have.

Susan: I so admire what you are doing and understand what you're saying, as I was there as well, since the 1970s, on a path of discovery. You have obviously been through a lot to see all that you have. I was looking at your ‘Economic Charter of Rights’ …

Frank: There are the seven principles in there. What I propose has nothing to do with politics. It's purely economics.

When I put in the corporate constitution at Magna, 50 years ago, late 70s - early 80s, I put in the Constitution which said, “Employees will get 10% of the profits over and above their wages, in a tangible and measurable way. Profits went up the first year by 40%... 100% the second year… 200% hundred percent the third year!

When you get employees engaged in a tangible way, so they can participate in the profits, you release an energy of untold proportions! That's what the Economic Charter of Rights is about. It will eliminate poverty and that is really what it's all about. I'm not saying let's take away from the rich.

The problem with the capitalistic system, at this time, is every day there is less Capitalists! And basically, when you look down the road, you might wind up with 10 Capitalists for the whole world. We know that if you have got a private monopoly, or a state monopoly, monopolies are bad for society. If we fail and make capitalists out of the workers, we have a problem. The real problem is the world has always been dominated by the United States, for the last 150 years. But it's not anymore.

About 50 years ago, when Wall Street was pushing business, “you've got to make more profits,” the unions were pushing, “We need higher wages!” Business took the easy way out. They went to China with all their technologies!

So we have to make up our mind. We have to change a few things. Otherwise eventually the Chinese philosophies and the Russian’s will be imposed on the American public.

Basically, when you take a look at the structure of Russia and China (I spent many hours with Putin), 10% of the population is part of the military. Another 10% are the super bureaucrats, and the 10% tell the public, the 80%, in no uncertain terms, what to do and how to live.

We have a similar system in the States and in Canada, where maybe 2% have maybe 50% of the assets, the wealth. And the 2% tell the other 98% what's good for them. There is still a lot more freedom involved. Not totally, but there is a lot of freedom.

The very key is we need an environment where we are free. But you are not a free person unless you are economically free. The very sad part about it is, if a Canadian, he or she, works for about 30 years, they should have enough that they would own their own little house or condo, and they should have at least maybe $300,000 in the bank. They are subsidized by their pension funds, so that elderly people can choose their own road to happiness, the last years of their lives.

Why is it that hardly anybody is economically free? That's the dilemma. We've got to dismantle the chains as domination, in a very constructive way. Not with violence. Totally constructive, a revolution of the mind.

Susan: Yes! Money is more a sign of appreciation for a job well done. It's not the money itself. It's what’s behind it, what it represents. People are honored and respected for what they've done, in appreciation. When we do that and appreciate one another that's the wealth. Wealth is in the sharing and loving.

I see that you are doing that in a certain way. Very impressive. I remember an interview you did with Peter C. Newman on Global TV’s “Everybody’s Business” show, in the 1980s, when I was the Producer/Editor for 6 years. I recall your interview in particular, because you were talking about these concepts of the economy. What you are proposing is what needs to happen. The scales have flipped. So much has gone to the top and there is nothing on the bottom. The government has pulled out the rug from underneath people, particularly in these last five years. It is very unfortunate.

I have a vision myself, of creating a school that starts with a community farm, with a PEACE School at the hub. It's along the same lines that you are speaking of… about the community coming together, working with the children. It's the children who are going to be our future. They are the future, so we have to give them an opportunity, in a creative way to live creatively. Learn how to move within these concepts that you've been through. It has inspired you to move in a different way, such that you have prospered. This is what we want to teach these children.

Frank: Luckily, I have a conscience. My conscience tells me I will do XXX… and I waited until I was a certain age. So now, I will die happy whatever it is, because I know I did the right thing.

Talking about farming, this is a main principle in the Economic Charter of Rights. It’s # 7 go to school hungry

7. THE RIGHT TO HEALTHY FOOD

No Canadian child must go to school hungry, which means that breakfast must be served at school. No Canadian child should leave school hungry, which means lunch must also be served. And by law, the food served in school must be organic.

That will create another problem for the simple reason. A country that can feed its people will never have a problem. Family farms in Canada are very productive, and Canadians did not go hungry. So basically, family farms are practically on welfare. Children of family farms say, “Mom, Dad, I don't want to be in farming. I don't want to be on welfare. So, we must do everything we can to uplift the family farms. There must be a family farm fund, where they will get a subsidy, if they grow organic food. Really, it's not a subsidy because it takes more time. If we feed organic food to our children, we would save billions in medical costs! Billions! What we do is gross negligence to our younger generation.

I got into it because I noticed that the children were stage two diabetic, allergies, etc. … because 95% of the food eaten in North America comes from industrial farms. At industrial farms you see no more Eagles fly… There are no more rabbits… There are no more pheasants! Why? They spray so much fungicides, pesticides… they kill everything. People have no idea how many chemicals they eat daily.

I think the one thing we want in our country …  the richer people are more aware. They feed their kids organic food. It's good… it's great! Every Canadian child should have a chance to eat healthy food. Because if they don't eat healthy food, they eat the chemicals, the junk food, it will inhibit their learning activities. They get sick. They won't be happy.

I created the GUHAH Foundation². It means, Growing Up Healthy And Happy! That's very important.

Susan: A project I have been working on for the past 15 years, called PEACE School,³ Paradigm Education Academy of Creative Enlightenment, founded on Consciousness Creativity and Imagination, in tandem with “Freedom Farm Academy” very much aligns with your vision.

Frank:  I have been on the Boards of quite a few universities. I did lectures from Harvard and right across the states, right across Canada, right across Europe. I have been a little harsh on myself, because a few years ago I looked at myself in the mirror. I said Frank, you missed a few things. So what did I miss? I've been on the Boards of universities. Universities have great faculties in Medicine, Technology, Arts … but very little on humanity. So what is the mandate of a university. The mandate is to teach young people, how we can have a more civilized Society. To be exact, universities will be the ideal place where we develop structures, which will lead to an ideal society.

We have no roadmap noting the direction where to go. We are totally lost. We need structures. Universities will be the ideal place to do that. A structure which will lead to an ideal setting, doesn't come overnight. It will take some years. Somewhere along the line you have to start on a map.

We still have the very rich, and what I am proposing basically has got to be grass roots. And the grass root is we don't work, because you can't make a profit. It's so logical.

Susan: And it's the whole idea of community as well.

Frank: Politics don't work. Politics that we have now is where the politician brings forth something new that he can be criticized. And all the politicians say, ”you can't bring that forward, otherwise we won't be elected.”

Winston Churchill saw the problem of Parliament. “Parliament doesn't work. There are only politicians and government. We need a chamber of citizens to balance out the politics.” So basically, Canada chamber citizens will be small business. If small business does well, the whole country will do well. Family farms and small business. We’d like to set up chapters of all the political Ridings. So, If you get some people together and talk about, “Are you interested in the Economic Charter? Are you concerned about what kind of Canada in the world will you have, and what is the future our kids will have?” We have to talk about this in a very civilized and a very constructive way. We need chapters with Boards, who will abdicate to people how important the economic Charters are for the country, where we teach the grassroots to bring about change in a civilized constructive way.

Susan: We need to change the governments, for sure…

Frank: All the governments have huge amounts of debt. Keep in mind the very rich who have a great influence on all the bureaucracy. Our bureaucrats are appointed by special interest groups. They don’t want to share the profits with the working class. There is Pierre Pollièvre. He won the Magna Scholarship program.⁴ I had a program for 30 years, where students had to write an essay, ‘If I were the Prime Minister of Canada, these are the things I would do!” First prize was $100,000, second price was $50,000 and third prize was $25A struggling tool and die maker from Austria, who lived and survived through the Depression, hopped on a boat in 1954, at age 22, and landed in Canada with $40 in his pocket. That $40 has since MAGNA-fied into a multi-billion dollar auto-parts, global empire. What is the answer to Frank Stronach’s success? 

Frank: “I have seen the lowest of the low and the highest of the high. It was strange when I was hungry, and not because we had no money to buy food. When we were younger, we hustled a bit, to make some money so that we can all live in dignity.”  … Read on… ,000. Pierre won at one time. But he hasn't brought forward what he said he would do, because he won’t be elected if he doesn’t. I am just hoping he does the right thing. The right thing is to bring it forward, “workers must get a slice of the economic pie.” Without that we cannot bake an economic pie. It’s fundamental. It's difficult because the ruling class think that you can't rely on the public. They are lobbyists. I do believe that if people have a sense of fairness that you will find Harmony in society.

Susan: it has to start in the education system as well… right from young children up. It's not going to grow if they are not educated.

Frank: Exactly … about how important the economy is!

1. Economic Charter of Rights - https://www.economiccharter.ca/

2. Growing Up Healthy And Happy - https://www.guhahway.com/

3. Paradigm Education Academy of Creative Enlightenment School - https://peace-school.org/

4. MAGNA Scholarship Program - https://www.magna.com › scholarship-program