Canada In A Changing World Economy

This volume addresses the governance and evolution of Canada's international policies, and the challenges facing Canada's international policy relations on multiple fronts.

The echoes of Laurier's remarks about Canada and the twentieth century are taking a long time to fade away. It is one of the purposes of Professor Johnson's Alan B. Plaunt Lectures (given at Carleton University in 1962) to silence them, for they can prove dangerous and misleading—like a siren song—in the formulation of Canadian economic policy at this time. The success of the Common Market, Britain's request for membership. President Kennedy's desire for tariff flexibility and reductions in the United States, and the recent stagnation in the North American economy (accentuated in Canada by an emphasis on monetary stability)—these are signs of change in the economic climate of the world. The requisite adaptations are the most important problem facing those who govern the economic life of this country, and they must be faced realistically to ensure Canada's continuing economic growth. Professor Johnson analyses his subject with his customary authoritative skill and lucidity. Written in non-technical language, this book presents an ideal summary of the contemporary economic world as it affects Canada.

A collection of essays by twenty-three of Canada's leading economic geographers, Canada and the Global Economy is a comprehensive study of the evolving economic and geographic patterns of Canadian development. It provides a benchmark for research on the spatial development of the Canadian economy. The contributors explore four central themes: the locational impacts of the openness of the Canadian economy, Canada's relatively simple economic geography in terms of regional variations in resources and urban development, the problems of keeping pace with rapid advances in technology, and the role of government in maintaining a national market and assisting economic development. They outline the essential elements of Canada's contemporary economic geography and highlight the origins and spatial imprint of change in the Canadian economy; in particular they provide an assessment of Canada's participation in significant international patterns of economic change. Canada and the Global Economy is concerned not only with the economic size and location of consumption and production but also with institutional changes and shifts in employment, the sectoral composition of economic activity, and the organizational structure and locational behaviour of particular industries and firms. Special attention is given to the technological development of both established industries and new service and manufacturing activities. A timely addition to the field, it provides a geographic perspective on significant changes in jobs and types of work that result from the transformation of economic activities.

Professor Johnson analyses his subject with his customary authoritative skill and lucidity. Written in non-technical language, this book presents an ideal summary of the contemporary economic world as it affects Canada.

In his study of Canada, John A. Stovel examines the changes in that country's balance of payments and balance of trade from confederation to the present day, including as part of his examination historical, statistical, and theoretical points of view. The author also reexamines critically--and finds himself in sharp disagreement with--Jacob Viner's classic in the field, Canada's Balance of International Indebtedness, 1900-1913, which has long been considered the definitive analysis of the subject. Developing in Part I an eclectic theory of international balance of payments, and in Part II concentrating on the Canadian balance of trade and balance of payments in relation to economic developments preceding World War I, Stovel carefully prepares the foundation for a critique of Viner's analysis of the period 1900-1913. Discussing the inadequacy of the Mill-Taussig theory and its empirical verification, and observing the extent to which the newer theoretical developments have afforded increased understanding, Stovel criticizes Viner's statistics and the use to which they were put. He delineates with telling clarity the mutual interaction of many elements in cyclical growth development, as opposed to the oversimplified and inadequate causal links of the earlier theory. In addition to the wealth of analysis of the earlier period, the author investigates the interwar period, with the postwar boom and the depression of the thirties, presenting a careful analysis of the structural changes in the balance of payments during this period as well as indicating the change in Canada's relation to the United States and Great Britain. The concluding section of the book deals with the period following World War II, and the author indicates the possible lessons to be learned from Canada's experiences and the improvements in government policy that have taken place, especially with respect to exchange rates.