Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The story of how we as a nation collectively built promising national projects and are now selling them off to the rich. In the early 1900s, thousands of citizens fought to create a public power company, freeing the waterpower of Niagara Falls from the control of wealthy interests. Another popular movement succeeded in establishing Canada's public broadcasting system to counter American dominance of the airwaves. And a Canadian doctor created a publicly-owned laboratory that saved countless lives by producing affordable medications, contributing to medical breakthroughs and helping eradicate smallpox throughout the world. In recent decades, however, Canadians have allowed their inspiring public enterprises to be privatized and their vital public programs downsized, leaving them increasingly dominated by the forces of private greed that rule the marketplace. In this provocative book, Linda McQuaig challenges the dogma of privatization that has defined our political age. She argues that, particularly now as we grapple with climate change and income inequality, we need to expand, not shrink, our public sphere."--From publisher.