The Canadian State and Staples: An Ear to Washington

Abstract

<p>Canada has long been viewed by social scientists as either an advanced industrial society or as a dependent neo-colony. Neither of these two frameworks were deemed appropriate for contemporary analysis of the peculiarity of Canadian development based on a new kind of staple and the role of the state in that process. Both advanced and dependent features are apparent in the Canadian case; both autonomy and the lack of it characterize the Canadian state's role in development. Canadian integration into the world system, and more specifically within the North American continental context, has produced a "semi-industrial", unevenly developed society which continues to provide primary resources to more advanced industrialized societies while exporting manufactures on a "go-between" basis to less developed ones. It remains a captive of the staples trap. As Canada has industrialized, new "industrial staples"--semi-fabricated energy, mine, and forest resources in particular--have become a peculiar core of indigenous production, a critical link in its dependency vis-à-vis the United States, and the material basis of a continental development of industrial resources in the postwar era. These new staples and the role of the Canadian state in facilitating their corporate growth are key in understanding the peculiarity of Canada's "semi-industrial", dependent development in a more general sense. The core of the thesis examines in detail the state's role in the postwar development of three industrial product sectors: mine, energy, and forest staples,by way of a series of hypotheses concerning the characteristics of the state's role. The data base consists of archival materials drawn from the federal civil service and from various continental and international forums concerning resources.</p> <p>An overall strategy on the part of the state which maintains and facilitates "continental industrial resource capitalism" in Canada is identified. This strategy is characterized by an "ear to Washington" stance on the part of Canadian policy makers and a "coattailing" of U.S. foreign and domestic policy regarding the priorities of resource development. Beyond the simple presence in productive sectors of massive amounts of U.s. direct investment and the power exerted by large multinational corporate entities on their own, the Canadian state plays a crucial, and previously inadequately described, role in the continuation of such dependent development. The thesis examines important elements of the socio-political maintenance and facilitation of such a continental resource policy within the federal bureaucracy and by way of its representations to the United States and its activities in furthering the international interests of resource capital. The Canadian state is found to reflect unequally the interests of u.s. and Canadian corporations both large and small within the three resource sectors in question. An examination of the interplay between resource strategies and the increasing concentration and centralization of control over capital and technology in the internationalized corporate capitalist phase indicates that in all three cases the Canadian state has fostered the growth of monopolistic corporations at the expense of smaller, predominantly competitive corporations. Canadian resource firms are not fostered as an alternative to development of resources by international capital. Nor does state participation in large-scale resource development projects act as a countervailing force vis-à-vis foreign capital, but rather is complementary to it and underwrites its risks. The state has not attempted to maintain a check on monopoly in these sectors but has, on the contrary, substantially facilitated its growth.</p> <p>The evidence thus challenges several current characterizations of the Canadian state which have proposed either absolute autonomy from special corporate interests or opted for a state model which over-simplifies the nature of the expression of corporate interests within the state. The evidence indicates neither autonomy from particular fractions of the continental capitalist class nor crude instrumentality in this regard by the Canadian state. Rather, the state's role, as seen in federal policy and the activity of federal personnel, involves the representation and filtering of corporate interests on an unequal basis and in a manner which operationalizes a continentalist as opposed to a nationalist alternative in developing industrial resources and which most often champions the larger (whether American or Canadian) at the expense of smaller corporations. The implications for industrial development entail continuing linkages to the U.S. economy and in certain instances to European and Japanese markets such that less and less forward processing of industrial resources takes place in Canada and fewer avenues for the generation and export of indigenous technology remain open. As such forward linkages are forsaken, the vulnerability of resource dependency is increased. An addiction to staples export prevails, but it is a malady which is actively facilitated by the role of the Canadian state.</p>