NDP MP Pat Martin was musing Monday about the massive state-funded rescue of General Motors, which leaves Washington as its majority owner, Canadian taxpayers with a 12 per cent stake and seats on the auto maker's board for both governments.
It's as if The Communist Manifesto was achieved, Mr. Martin joked, and the people have taken control.
"Mr. Speaker, the fact is we now have Marxism realized: we own the means of production and we didn't have to fire a single shot. It's really quite phenomenal what went on today," Mr. Martin said in the Commons during a debate on free-trade.
"When I announce that I am a socialist, Mr. Speaker, it's no surprise because we're all socialists now. I mean we just bought General Motors," the Winnipeg NDP MP said.
He joked the failure of GM was once considered unthinkable.
"I always thought that was one of the signs of the apocalypse ... when General Montors would go bankrupt. Isn't that when the four horseman appear on the horizon and there's darkness at the break of noon and GM goes bankrupt?"
Steven Chase