Economic Nationalism - Rest In Peace

Alas, the Globe has nothing to worry about. Walter Gordon is quite dead. The cause he so diligently championed – to bring Canadian companies under the control of Canadian entrepreneurs– did bear fruit briefly in the 1970s and '80s. But ultimately, it was sandbagged by the very people that he was trying to help, the Canadian business class. In the end, Canada's big businesses preferred globalization to nationalism. They wanted a world where they could sell their holdings to whichever purchaser from whatever country offered the highest price. And they wanted reciprocal rights to invest Canadian money abroad. The Walter Gordon form of Canadian economic nationalism effectively died in 1985, when fellow-Liberal Donald Macdonald – at the behest of Canadian business – issued his royal commission report calling for full-scale free trade with the United States. Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney delivered the coup de grâce four years later when his government inked that deal. In opposition, the Liberals huffed and puffed against free trade. But on winning government in 1993, they embraced the even more comprehensive North American Free Trade Accord. So, no. The question of Canadian ownership, as it used to be defined 30 years ago, is no longer treated seriously by any political party. Every time an iconic Canadian company is bought out by foreign interests, there is some nostalgic hand-wringing. But the people who matter in such cases – those who control the commanding heights of Canadian business – don't care. Which is why, after everyone's hands have been sufficiently wrung, nothing happens. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/205607 {Editor's note, same story submitted by TruePatriot. DrC} [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on April 23, 2007]

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