Discussion

On the Role of the Canadian State

As the Chretien government moves closer and closer to a common economic, monetary, military and security policy with the United States, questions are being raised about the role of the Canadian state. Does it have any independent political role left or is it rapidly being reduced to a colonial appendage of the United States?

As with all states, the Canadian state represents the interests of the dominant economic class, which in the case of Canada is the monopoly capitalist class. So to understand its role, one must examine the nature and interests of the class which it serves.

The capitalist class in Canada emerged as an appendage of the ruling classes of Britain and France, as colonial administrators and mercantile middlemen. The nominal independence of Canada from Britain in 1867 did not in any way represent a break with the colonial master, but a way in which Britain could offload the expense of maintaining its colony onto the local population. However, the markets of the United States were much closer than the markets of Britain and Canadian capitalists always placed profit above patriotism.

Almost immediately after Confederation, the government of John A. MacDonald sought to exchange Canada's colonial relationship with Britain with a similar relationship with the United States through a Reciprocity Treaty (an early form of free trade agreement with the U.S. which had existed prior to Confederation). However, the vast majority of Canadian voters were small farmers who would be wiped out by competition from American agriculture and were, therefore, opposed to reciprocity. The American government was not about to sign a reciprocity treaty anyway, still angry over Britain's support for the Confederacy and thinking that high tariff barriers would force Canada to seek political annexation to the U.S. MacDonald was a shrewd enough politician to embrace realty, wrap himself in the British flag and let the Liberals champion the cause of reciprocity and continentalism.

Laurier did a similar about-face when he was elected Prime Minister, abandoning continentalism and embracing MacDonald's "National Policy". By that time, American capitalism had abandoned its aim of territorial expansionism and replaced it with a policy of economic imperialism. It did an end-run around Canadian tariff barriers by establishing branch plants in Canada which rapidly monopolized most of the main sectors of the Canadian economy.

Until the Mulroney regime, the policy of subsequent Canadian governments has differed little from that of MacDonald and Laurier - wrapping themselves in the Canadian flag while quietly integrating Canada economically with the U.S. Even Trudeau's economic nationalism was more posturing than substance. By the 1970s all the main sectors of the Canadian economy were dominated by American multinational companies and it had become virtually impossible to discern where the Canadian capitalist class ended and the American capitalist class began. The political significance of small producers, especially farmers, had also been largely eliminated. So the "National Policy" was abandoned and continentalism openly endorsed. That the Chretien Liberals continued this policy of the Mulroney Conservatives should come as no surprise. The fact is that the largest and most powerful capitalists in Canada are either Americans or have become completely integrated into the American capitalist system. They no longer have any separate interests to defend and the increasing subjugation of the Canadian state to the United States simply reflects this reality.

However, history does not always develop in straight lines. While Canadian nationalism was a temporary inconvenience for MacDonald and Laurier, the "National Policy" they were forced by political realities to adopt had a life of its own and actually succeeded in forging a new nation within the borders of Canada, a nation of working people. This nation has had some difficulty in finding an identity for many reasons, but what Canadians, in general, agree on is that a key element is the quality of being "not American". That quality of being "not American" has gradually taken on a content, not the least of which is the Canadian system of public health and education, as well as public broadcasting and other national institutions.

What was supposed to be a temporary inconvenience on the path towards economic and political union with the United States has, unfortunately for the Canadian ruling class, become an actual nation. In other words, it has become a potentially permanent inconvenience. As a result, Canadians are faced with an incongruous situation in which the Canadian state, supposedly there to protect the nation, is increasingly becoming an instrument for the dismantling of the nation, an instrument of American, rather than Canadian policy. Furthermore, Canadians are gradually coming to the realization that it is futile to implore their political leaders to rectify this situation, since the state serves the interests of the monopoly capitalists and not the interests of the Canadian people.