While Canada is the smallest economy in the Group of 7/8 (G7/8), it is nevertheless a major player in the globalization enterprise currently underway and undergoing transformation from its previous status as what Clarkson (2001) characterized as a semi-peripheral state. At issue herein is an analysis of issues related to the nexus of power and class in Canada. Specific topics for analysis include: corporate concentration, government involvement and foreign ownership in Canada's economy; globalization and neo-liberal democracy; working class formation in Canada; and affluence, power and strikes in Canada. It will be argued that Canada's transition to neoliberalism was facilitated by its free trade agreements with the United States and, later, Mexico, as well as by lower restrictions on foreign investments, leading to a minimization of the influence of labor union strikes on the national economy.
Concentration, Foreign Ownership, Government Involvement
According to the Central intelligence Agency (CIA) (2009), Canada faces the political challenges of meeting public demands for improvements in health and education, responding to ongoing calls for separatism in francophone Quebec, and managing a market-oriented economic system characterized as affluent, high-tech and urban. The 1989 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) established a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with Canada's principal trading partner, the U.S. Corporate concentration in Canada is in such diverse sectors as energy (oil, gas, uranium, and electric power) as well as manufacturing of consumable products.
Taylor (2001) states that there has been a slight upward trend of foreign firms operating in Canada in the previous 10 years or so. As of 1998, 22.7 percent of all enterprises operating in Canada were controlled by foreign businesses with the United States, followed by the E...