|
|
Underdevelopment in Canada
http://www.connexions.org/CxArchive/UnderdevelopmentinCanada/UnderdevelopmentInCanada.htmlPublisher: Development Education Centre, Canada Year Published: 1977 Pages: 22pp Resource Type: Pamphlet Cx Number: CX285 A collection of articles analyzing underdevelopment in Canada in historical and economic terms. Abstract: This collection of articles was gathered to look at the subject of underdevelopment in Canada. It takes an analytical approach to the issue in primarily historical and economic terms. The colonization of Canada is introduced in the context of global European expansion in search of raw materials for new trade. This began the export of unprocessed goods from Canada: fur, timber, wheat and oil to external metropoles whose own internal politics began to determine economic and political life for Canada. The shift in production from one staple to another reflects changes in the structure of demands of these various metropoles and, as a result, the determination of social structures and attitudes in hinter-land regions such as Canada. Canada's own development is viewed in parallel terms -- in other words, the planning of Canadian regions from metropole centres: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto -- with financial and industrial groups deciding the economic future of Canada through the C.P.R. and confederation. The effects on indigenous peoples, immigrant patterns, regional fragmentations are all reviewed in this context. The booklet studies Canada's current metropole relationship vis-a-vis the United States and other foreign countries. Present economic development is presented as now being determined by a small corporate elite who continue the process of colonization -- except now, in allegiance to their corporate lords rather than national heritage. Canada's present position internationally is seen as unique in that it is neither a central or peripheral capitalist country but instead has the qualities of both. On the one hand it enjoys a high standard of living but on the other it depends on foreign capital and technology to maintain this. This is the reason why Canada is judged a neo-colony of the U.S. and a neo-colonizer, the latter because of Canadian investments in the Third World. The paper concludes by suggesting that a self-generating mode of development would best counter regional disparities and the capitalistic-metropole style of development. This, it shows, can only be done through a restructuring of political and economic ties along with class relations. It recommends continued economic and political analysis of domestic and foreign policy, trade patterns, military strategy, and increasing public consciousness about these structures. Excerpts: This collection, then, challenges the image of Canada as an autonomous and developed nation. It stresses three related issues: foreign domination of the economy, regional disparities in living standards, and class divisions in Canada's social structure. It is on this basis of dependence, unequal growth, and class relations that we are studying underdevelopment in Canada. Some basic concepts are essential for this study. The process of unequal and dependent development is generated in a hinterland nation or region by the channelling of its natural, financial and human resources to another centre, a metropole. The hinterland is integrated into the process of development of the metropole in a way which distorts and limits the growth of the former's productive forces. Through the same process which makes the hinterland dependent, the accumulation and concentration of wealth in the metropole is promoted. The processes of dependent and uneven growth which evolve in the hinterland are well summarized in the phrase "the development of underdevelopment". The conventional view of underdevelopment is of an area with a subsistence economy, desperately low levels of income, and poor education, health and housing standards. These are features of many underdeveloped societies in the "Third World" (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean). But these present living conditions are the consequences of history, of an international system of power relations which began with colonialism and continues to operate today through the monopoly capitalist system. It is by analysing the operation of this system that underdevelopment in Third World countries as well as in Canada, can best be understood. In our view, Canada's position is not simply that of metropole, nor simply that of hinterland. It is not simply that of a central capitalist country, nor simply that of a peripheral, or Third World country. Canada shares some of the characteristics of both the central and peripheral capitalist nations. This contradictory pattern of development allows Canada to play a dual role in the international political economy. On the one hand, Canada is a neo-colony to the United States, and on the other hand, a neo-colonizer of some parts of the Third World, notably the Caribbean.... It is in the context of this dual role in the international system that we would analyze the internal dynamics of underdevelopment in Canada. One outstanding feature of this internal dynamic is the imbalance in economic power between central Canada and the hinterland regions of the nation. Another is the stunted or "truncated" growth of the manufacturing sector relative to the resource extraction and service sectors of the economy. The present dynamics of underdevelopment in Canada grow out of particular history. The pattern of external dependence, regional fragmentation, and class conflict was established at the time of the European conquest when military and cultural intervention severely disrupted the Indian societies of the St. Lawrence system. Fragmentation of Canada as a political and economic unit, then, was a fact long before American control over the nation became consolidated. It has its roots in the gradual colonization of different regions at different historical times. The St. Lawrence - Great Lakes system, for example, was integrated into the international economy long before white settlers displaced the native peoples from most of the Prairies. The fur trade is a classic example of "staple" production, i.e. the orientation of regional economic and political life around a relatively unprocessed good designed for export to external metropoles. It is an organization of production which has recurred throughout Canadian history. In this way, Canada's dependent role in the international political economy defeated the range of historical options open to ruling groups within the country. An while differences in interests among regional and sectoral fractions of the ruling class produced conflict over how these options should be carried through, it was working people who bore the real burden of it. The indentured labourers who constructed the railroad, the Indians who were starved off the Prairies to make way for it, the farmers who paid both inflated land prices and freight rates, and the taxpayers across the country who carried the enormous public debt incurred by it - all these people built the Montreal merchants' "national" dream, and shared the price with the Maritime workers who were pushed to the periphery of Canadian development. Financing for these projects follows the classic pattern which made possible the completion of the original "National Dream" - Canadian Pacific Railway - socialize the costs but keep the profits private. In this, as in other respects, it is clear that a major perpetuator of uneven and dependent development in Canada has been the State. Canada's foreign policy is heavily dependent on direction from the United States. This political fact is rooted in the economic relations we have previously been describing. Participation of Ottawa in NATO, NORAD, and in defense-sharing agreements, has effectively ceded military control over our territory to the United States, even though Canada has the distinction of being the fifth largest arms producer in the world, with the highest per capita output of military hardware - quite a record for a peacekeeper. Subject Headings |