TORONTO — Canada’s banking system has been the subject of international praise from economists grappling with global turmoil, but one 12-year-old girl begs to differ.
Victoria Grant of Cambridge, Ont. is earning a reputation as a financial pundit after her tirade against her homeland’s borrowing practices went viral on YouTube.
A video of her address, shot at the Public Banking in America Conference in Philadelphia on April 27, has already attracted nearly 65,000 views since being posted a week ago.
Her well-rehearsed speech, delivered in a clear, youthful voice, takes aim at Canada’s modern day financial system and champions a greater role for the country’s central bank.
“The banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada,” she says.
Grant lays out a brief history of the Canadian banking system and explaining that the Bank of Canada held primary control over government lending until the 1970’s.
Starting then, she says, governments began borrowing from private banks instead at considerably higher interest rates than those available through the central bank.
The result, Grant argues, is a rapidly increasing national debt.
The pint-sized pundit is quick to offer a solution.
“If the Canadian Government needs money, they can borrow it directly from the Bank of Canada,” she says. “ . . . Canadians would again prosper with real money as the foundation of our economic structure.”