University of Northern British Columbia: Open Journal Systems
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The (Post) Staples Economy and the (Post) Staples State in Historical Perspective
Get PDFThis article examines the evolution of the contemporary staples state. There are two forms of competitive states that are relevant to a discussion of the Canadian (post) staples state: the Schumpeterian and Ricardian competitive states. The importance of the Schumpetarian competitive state is the focus of Jessop’s (2002a) The Future of the Capitalist State and is often applied to Canada. The Ricardian competitive state's characteristics, however, lead to the argument that it in fact better describes the contemporary staples state that continues to flourish throughout many parts of Canada.
The article first outlines the economic importance of contemporary staples production at both the national and provincial level. It then chronologically defines the staples state in relationship to popular characterizations of it, from its pre-20th century form to the present
The 2007 Provincial Election in Newfoundland and Labrador
Get PDFOn the surface, there was nothing special about the 2007 Newfoundland and Labrador general election, which saw Danny Williams re-elected for a second term as Premier. That his Progressive Conservatives would win a solid majority was never in doubt. There were no emerging issues, major gaffes or innovative campaign tactics, and few tight races. The de facto referendum on Williams’ leadership became a coronation. As Mackinnon (2007: 1) wrote about the Prince Edward Island election held five months earlier, “some campaigns are over before they begin.” In this case the only intrigue was how many Liberal or New Democratic Party candidates would form the opposition.
However the results do illustrate that a relatively homogenous electorate can rally around a leader who decries the province’s status in the Canadian federation. Furthermore, when elected officials from all major parties have been implicated in a scandal, many electors respond by not participating in politics. Political scientists can therefore draw comparative insights, such as asymmetrical federalism reminiscent of Quebec Premier Jean Lesage in the early 1960s, political scandal similar to the Grant Devine administration of Saskatchewan in the early 1990s, or about civic engagement generally
The Canadian Fisheries Industry: Retrospect and Prospect
Get PDFWithout question, Canadian domestic policy has had an influence on the development of the fisheries staple industry – from its National Policy to its subsidization of both fishers and, more recently its effort to conserve of fish stocks. In this respect Laxer is correct in allocating “blame” for the current dire status of the fisheries industry where it is, in part, due: on the Canadian government itself. However, it is also the case that trade liberalization, from the pressures exerted early on by the colonizing country of Britain, to the current dependency upon the US market for fish exports, has played an enormous role on the development, if not devastation of the industry.
In this respect the Canadian government could have done much more in the way of first recognizing the severity of fish stock depletion as well as fostering a sustainable fisheries industry that met the needs of conservation and fisher communitie
The Two Faces of Canadian Agriculture in a Post-Staples Economy
Get PDFThis article traces the evolution of agriculture from a staples to a mature staples sector in the post-staples Canadian economy. It examines the situation of agricultural producers in the domestic and international political economy and traces the factors which have led to its structural transformation. Public policies are deeply implicated in this transformation, and accordingly, the changing patterns of relations between state actors and the agri-food sector are given attention. Four periods of structural transition and patterns of state-sector relationships are identified. The first, expansionist phase, extended from the late nineteenth to the 1930s when agricultural commodities were integral to the development of the Canadian economy and political community. The second period, from the 1930s to the end of the Second World War, marked an interregnum when agriculture merited attention not simply because of its service to broader national goals, but also because of recognition of structural disadvantages faced by thousands of individual commodity producers in a market economy. The third period, from the end of the Second World War through to the early 1980s, witnessed significant structural and policy changes in the sector in quest of rendering the sector more productive and profitable. The transition to a mature staples sector was supported by state intervention in agricultural markets and a financial safety net for producers. In the current fourth phase, since the early 1980s, changes in the international political economy, domestic fiscal deficits, and ideological shifts have precipitated a new competitiveness model. Strategies that are market-oriented and give incentives to adding value to raw commodities are in vogue
The 2007 Provincial Election in Prince Edward Island
Get PDFThe 2007 provincial election in Prince Edward Island on May 28 was characterized both by a desire for a change and by a defining moment which contributed to the final result. In the end, that inchoate desire for change, coupled with more than a garden variety displeasure with an increasingly tired, sluggish, third term government perceived as lacking energy, imagination and perhaps political will, led to a dramatic turnaround in the election outcome. The Progressive Conservative government of Pat Binns, first elected in 1996, had easily won the preceding election in 2003 with a 23-4 majority. It now saw that outcome exactly reversed, with the Liberals under Robert Ghiz winning 23 of the 27 seats. Even many Liberals were surprised by the extent of the shif
Knotty Tales: Canadian Staples and Post-Staples Forest Policy Narratives in an Era of Transition from Extractive to ‘Attractive’ Industries
Get PDFPolitical economists have typically understood the forest sector as part of the Canadian staples economy: early European settlers used forests for fuel, farming and construction purposes, and industry began later to cut raw timber and manufacture pulp and paper for export. According to the staples narrative, introduced by William Mackintosh and elaborated by Harold Innis, in order to settle the land and extract its resources, including forest products, colonists and settlers built an entire society and economy “organized around the labour force, technological regime, legal order, and financial system needed to serve the ends of resource extraction”. Building upon Innis’ work, a nationalist political economy school has criticized the domination of the Canadian resource economy by foreign capital, markets and technology, and advocated a ‘made-in-Canada’ industrial strategy. Studies on the forest sector have been especially prominent in probing the contingencies, specificities, and possibilities of building a forest policy that is more socially equitable, more value-added oriented, and more integrated into the national economy. More recently, however, many observers in the political economy and policy community tradition have noted a shift from an “extractive to an attractive model of development” within the forest sector, or what Hutton calls the “staples in decline syndrome”. Though he concedes that it is possible to overstate the staples in decline syndrome, he maintains that “we may be at the advent of a ‘post-staples’ state, in which resource extraction is essentially a residual of the national economic structure, a vestige of an historical development which sustained many Canadian regions”. In order to evaluate the extent to which Hutton’s observations ring true, this chapter grapples with divergent methods of approaching and analysing forestry
Sustaining a Dynasty in Alberta: The 2004 Provincial Election
Get PDFIn 2004 the Alberta Progressive Conservative party won an election that prolonged their political dynasty, which had begun some thirty-three years earlier. Dynasties seem to characterize Alberta politics, and over the years several researchers have formulated models to explain them. This paper uses the 2004 election as a case study to evaluate the contemporary relevance of a number of those theories of one-party dominance; in particular, it examines what they can offer to explain the latest extension of Tory hegemony. It also examines some factors that are not contained in the models in order to provide a fuller explanation of how the Conservative dynasty was preserved. We conclude that some of the standard theories of one-party dominance in Alberta are problematic or incomplete, and suggest some modifications
Re-Visiting the New Orthodoxy of Policy Dynamics: The Dependent Variable and Re-Aggregation Problems in the Study of Policy Change
Get PDFThe new orthodoxy in studies of policy dynamics, including those of Baumgartner and Jones, Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, and Hall, is that policy change occurs through a homeostatic process. “Perturbations” occurring outside of an institutionalized policy subsystem, often characterized as some type of societal or political upheaval or learning, are critical for explaining the development of profound and durable policy changes which are otherwise limited by ‘endogenous’ institutional stability. These homeostatic assumptions, while useful for assessing many cases of policy change do not adequately capture the historical patterns of policy development found in many sectors. The roots of this problem are traced back to the origins of the new orthodoxy in comparative policy research whereby different levels (orders) of policy-making have been incorrectly juxtaposed, providing a parsimonious, but sometimes empirically incorrect, view of policy change. Revising existing taxonomies of policy levels provides a superior identification of the processes of change, and uncovers more than one mechanism through which significant policy change can occur. Three of these alternative mechanisms - a “neo-homeostatic” one in which paradigmatic changes occur through endogenous shifts in goals; a ‘quasi-homeostatic’ in which exogenous factors influence changes in objectives and settings; and a ‘thermostatic’ one in which durable policy objectives require that settings adapt to exogenous changes - are discussed
Shifting Foundations in a Mature Staples Industry: a Political Economic History of Canadian Mineral Policy
Get PDFAs noted by Hutton, a new or post-staples political economy might be characterized as one that includes severe pressures on the resource sectors, public concerns about adverse ecological impacts of industrial activity, rapid shifts in the economy specifically toward the tertiary sector with industrial regional growth, and a decline of smaller resource communities. Significant international changes would also be present, including the economic integration of markets, networks and services. In the past quarter century, such characteristics certainly applied to Canada’s mineral industry. The industry reacted in various ways to fluctuating economic cycles, new competition, uncertainty in land access for exploration, and the indifference of a primarily urban public frequently more concerned with the industry’s environmental impacts than economic contributions. A decline in the size and number of mining-dependent communities and lower levels of direct employment in mining operations contributed to the industry’s decreasing influence on public agendas. This raises the question about whether we are now experiencing a diversification of the Canadian economy accompanied by a diminishing mineral sector—a reflection of the emergence of a post-staples economy or simply a declining mature resource staple industry
The New Oil Order: The Post Staples Paradigm and the Canadian Upstream Oil and Gas Industry
Get PDFThe history of the industry can be divided in four different phases: the semi-colonial period of 1867-1930; the era of multinational domination, 1930-1969; the withdrawal of the multi-nationals and the Canadianization of the industry, 1969-1985; and a fourth, current, era in the evolution of Canada’s oil and natural gas industry beginning with the switch to non-conventional oil recovery, the rise of natural gas as the dominant segment of the industry and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement which guaranteed a reliable market for Canada’s oil and natural gas The re-entry of the federal government into the provincial oil and gas industry through the Kyoto Protocol has challenged the free-market continentalism that has dominated the Canadian oilpatch since the mid 1980s and the beginning of a new phase of environmental regulation in the industry