Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
with the Mulroney-Reagan
entente cordiale
binding Ottawa and Washington.
Freer trade was a basic plank of neo-liberal 'Reaganomics', and, following
the recommendations of the Macdonald Royal Commission on the Canadian
economy, Prime Minister Mulroney authorized free trade negotiations with
the Americans to begin in 1986. The objectives were set out with transpar-
ent clarity in government information sources.
In the late 1980s, there was a push to liberalize trade. Canada wanted improved
and secure access to the US market. The goal was to promote productivity,
full employment and to encourage foreign direct investment. Canada also
wanted to strengthen the competitiveness of Canadian firms in global markets
and to ensure the steady improvement of living standards (Government of
Canada 2007).
Although a Liberal-appointed Royal Commission endorsed free trade,
the Liberal Party, concerned about challenges to Canadian sovereignty,
opposed the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiated by the
Mulroney Government. Also opposed was the centre-left New Democratic
Party (NDP), worried by implications of a level playing field for Canadian
social policy, particularly universal health care, as well as potential job loss
as manufacturers encountered lower-cost American competition.
Matthew Sparke has confirmed that 'the dominant critical commentaries
around FTA and NAFTA
6
at the time of their negotiation and ratification
were most often focused on the question of national sovereignty' (2005:114).
The much used metaphor of a North American level playing field was
anathema to many - in fact most - Canadians, who preferred the existing
differentiated topography with a break of slope at the 49th parallel. The
1988 General Election in Canada was effectively fought as a referendum on
the FTA. Anti-FTA parties were particularly successful in British Columbia,
where the NDP emerged as the leading party, securing 19 of 32 provincial
seats. John Turner, Leader of the Liberal Opposition and viscerally critical
of the FTA, more than doubled his majority in Vancouver-Quadra, the con-
stituency that included many of Vancouver's Westside neighbourhoods.
Dissent against open borders, the level playing field, in Vancouver was
already galvanized by national debate around free trade.
Meanwhile provincial government innovations in the 1980s featured the
resolute adoption of a tough neo-liberal agenda. Political conflict and polar-
ization deepened and in 1983, during a severe recession with unemploy-
ment close to 14 percent, an alliance of union workers and service
organizations brought the province to the brink of a general strike. Elections
that decade suggested a majority of voters in the City of Vancouver were not
sympathetic to the Province's right-wing agenda. In the 1979, 1983 and
1986 provincial elections, when the neo-liberal policy of the government was
put to the test, a majority of Vancouver voters supported the opposition
