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Example research essay topic: American Ownership Of Canada - 1,853 words

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American Ownership of Canada In 1867 Canada was heading down the road of autonomy, in 1931 Canada gained further independence from the empire by negotiating and signing the Treaty of Westminster. But within a period of a few short years of moving away from one empire we just backed into another one. As many of us know today Canada is known to many as an American satellite state. How did this happen, how did a country looking to gain greater autonomy end up having the greatest amount of foreign ownership then any other industrial country in the world. I will examine the early history of the relationship between Canada and America and examine some of the key events that bound Canada to the United States.

I will mainly cover the years 1930 to the cold war era and examine what impact the close relationship has had on Canada and how the different authors feel this has affected Canadians today. When the 1930 s came around the Canadian economy took a downward spiral. It was not unusual in a capitalist economy to experience short, sharp fluctuation in the economy but this time it was different (Norrie and Owram 353). By this time Canada was already dependent on the U. S, as a large part of its exports depended on the United States. Canadas share of the new economic era was created by a resource boom that was inspired by demand in the United States, now with no demand the economic situation wasnt looking good for Canada (Thompson and Randall 109).

By the time the 30 s came to a close things werent looking to get any better as another World War was on the brink. The situation in 1940 looked pretty bleak in terms of Canadas position in the Second World War, both in the defence of Britain and in the defence of Canadian soil itself. The Canadian Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, had two choices, either continue to support the British cause and hope for the best, or look for an ally to who would be willing to defend both Canada and themselves if British and Canadian troops fell in Europe. Mackenzie King looked to the most likely possible ally who would be interested in securing the North American continent, the United States. Mackenzie King would look to the United States for a military agreement that would allow Canada to support the British cause, and at the same time protect Canadian soil from invasion.

King would be successful for his quest for a military alliance when, in August 1940, King and the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, would sign the Ogdensburg Agreement. Mackenzie King had completed what was necessary in order to protect Canada in a time of military uncertainty. King also seems to have sold the idea to Winston Churchill. However, King was also able to ensure that the Joint Board of Defence would operate on Canadian as well as American terms.

The agreement was never debated in the U. S. Senate or in Parliament (Thompson and Randall 153). Canada was now as many described at the time a lynching between Britain and the United States, although the Canadian Prime Minister was not about to give into American pressure.

That is why during the Ogdensburg negotiations he rejected the idea of American bases on Canadian soil. Ogdensburg Agreement led to North American defense plans that gave Americans strategic control over Canadian forces. The Hyde Park Declaration in 1941 U. S. would increase defense purchases in Canada while material exported to Canada for use in supplies for Britain would be charged to Britain's lend-lease account; this was so that Canada's debt to the U. S.

would not be increased for materials going to the defense of England (Thompson and Randall 155). These two agreements laid the ground work for a close working relationship between the two countries. These two measures indicate something of the degree to which the normal marketplace system of the Canadian economy was altered by government intervention during the war (Norrie and Owram 384). Prosperity and the ever-greater importance of the United States were two legacies of the Second World War (Norrie and Owram 394). After the war the U. S.

at least for a while accounted for 70 percent of all imports to Canada. With Britain unable to purchase much of anything after the war the export rate with England dropped from 26 percent before the end of the war to 16 percent by 1951. Canada had little choice in forging a close economic tie with its neighbor the United States. By 1951 the U. S absorbed 59 percent of Canadian exports (Thompson and Randall 202). Gradually US foreign investment grew and British investment fell.

All of Europe had been ravaged by the war, not to mention other parts of the world, the only industrial countries left untouched were Canada and the United States. The government did not want to go through what they did during the depression so logically they had to get closer to the U. S. The U. S wanted to benefit so American companies began infiltrating the Canadian market at a very high rate after the Second World War.

Even as early as 1920 over a third of Canadas pulp and paper industry were owned and controlled by American capital (Thompson and Randall 109). Through foreign investment the Americans accumulated Canada at the unbelievable rate of a billion dollars from 1955 onward; the view on foreign investment was mixed to say the least. In other words: This foreign takeover has turned Canada into a branch plant economy where parent companies in the U. S.

make decisions concerning Canadian companies and Canadians rarely have the ability to reach top management positions. Often a firm would start with a sales branch and later set up a branch factory (Laxer 162). The US was home of many transnationals after 1945 and naturally Canada its only affluent neighbor received branch plants at such an early stage. Another way of describing Canada's branch plant economy is to call it a new form of mercantilism. We are just a colony of the United States and we are acting for the betterment of the Mother country. We are the servants of a new mercantilism.

Just think of the hundreds and thousands of America companies we know of in Canada. It has become all too normal for us Canadians to be ok with everything being run by Americans. The foreign subsidiary in Canada clearly exists to further the interests of the parent corporation, whose home country in most cases is the United States. The main purpose of a country like Canada is to supply the corporations with raw materials, and organize the disposition of subsequent consumer capital goods.

Although foreign ownership creates jobs for Canadians, it does not create the top jobs, nor does it promote economic progress or even prosperity. Americans have drained from Canada more wealth than all other countries totaled. And the government is still allowing more and more foreign investment. And now, with free-trade, it has become even easier for America to control Canada and totally exploit it for all America's wants and needs. With ever growing talk of new free trade agreements we will only open ourselves more to U. S exploitation.

Canada has traditionally and historically suffered a sovereignty deficit as a result of our close relationship to the United States, the most politically, economically and culturally dominant nation on the planet. Pierre Trudeau once described the Canadian-American relationship as being like sleeping with the elephant (Thompson and Randall 248). Geographic proximity is one obvious feature that ties us to the Americans. Greater distances between markets mean larger costs of transporting goods and services between them, hurting trade and the development of close economic ties. But the United States and Canada share a long border, much of which is easily accessible by land or water.

Moreover, some Canadian cities are closer to urban centers in the United States than they are to other major Canadian cities. Indeed, over three-fourths of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the U. S. border. The nearness of the two countries extends beyond mere physical proximity: Canada and the United States share a number of social, political, and cultural traditions, and a majority of people in both countries speak the same language.

Over 80 percent of out trade is with the United States, most of which is trade between subsidiaries or natural resources. For Canadians, the global economy generally means the Canada-U. S. economy (Laxer 133). And because we live in such an export dependent economy, Canadian governments have generally had to bow to what America wants or else risk the catastrophic results of a major trade war. Already the country with the largest amount of foreign ownership and control of our economy, trade liberalization further encourages American takeovers of Canadian firms.

To the extent that certain firms do favor operations within the country they are based and carry great influence over the political processes there, this can only mean further losses of sovereignty with more foreign corporations having greater say over the policies of domestic governance. American Companies have as much say in our policies as Canadian ones. Since our economy is so tied in with the United States the government doesnt want to do anything to make them upset. To conclude, Canadian reliance on the United States of America began as early as the beginning of the 20 th century and peaked after the Second World War.

The U. S. cleverly began signing agreement after agreement in the early 1940 s to reel Canada into there sphere of influence. Economically Canada is owned and dominated by America. People at that time had mixed feeling because they did not know what to expect.

We have become a puppet of the U. S, it appears to many as if Canada has become a colony of the United States. Due to our geographic proximity to the U. S it was just a matter of time before we would be swallowed in. In the post-Cold War era of globalization, where the United States has emerged as the worlds dominant military and economic superpower, it may become even more difficult for Canada to withstand the American onslaught. Due to the devalued Canadian dollar and our open border, American companies have been able to buy up firms here at a faster rate than at any time since the 1970 s.

People talk about gaining greater economic independence but for that to happen we must control foreign ownership, balance trade, and be dealt with fairly when it comes to free trade agreements. The authors of Ambivalent Allies used the example of Sweden as being a country who managed to stay independent but I think for Canada it was a little more difficult to do this. As it stands right now I dont see any way it would be economically possible for Canada to gain greater economic freedom from the United States without a huge blow to our economy or a trade war.


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Research essay sample on American Ownership Of Canada

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