Capitalism has created more prosperity and progress for more people than any system in human history. On the 30th anniversary of the official end of the Soviet Union, join the National Post and Financial Post in a series saluting the unfashionable yet awesome power of the free-market system.

So reads the introduction to each article of “The Capitalist Manifesto” — a series by Postmedia, Canada’s premier right-leaning news conglomerate, that ran in several of its properties between December 2021 and January 2022. The series features arguments from Postmedia’s usual foot soldiers, as well as some of Canada’s most infamous right-wing ideologues. Postmedia conscripted the likes of Conrad Black, the megarich National Post founder and fraudster, and W. Brett Wilson, investment banker and Dragons’ Den host, to make the case that we have capitalism to thank for this, the best of all possible worlds.

The enthusiasm of this team of cheerleaders for capitalism is not matched by their ability to marshal convincing arguments in their favor. They instead rely upon stock talking points to make their timeworn case: capitalism leads to innovation, prosperity, longer life spans, and “free speech.” Several of the articles make feints into stranger fare: we should have a national “Capitalism Day,” says one author; corporate social responsibility and sustainability are “subversive doctrines,” says another; maybe we should call capitalism “progressivism,” says one more. Headlines also include “Free markets won in the Cold War, but threats like wokeism are rising” and “Hate capitalism? Here’s how it keeps lifting millions out of poverty.”