Much ado about Parties
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| Author | Paul Gecelovsky,Christopher Kukucha |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200906400103 |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Political Parties & Foreign Policy |
Paul Gecelovsky &
Christopher Kukucha
Much ado about
parties
Conservative and Liberal approaches to Canada’s trade policy
with the United States
| International Journal | Winter 2008-09 | 29 |
Conventional wisdom holds that governments matter—i.e., that a new
government, particularly one of a different political party, will make
substantial changes to the policies of the state it was elected to lead. The focus
of this article is whether party affiliation matters in determining Canada’s
priorities and policies in its trade relationship with the United States. It will
compare policy statements and performances of Liberal, Progressive
Conservative, and Conservative governments from the advent of the Trudeau
Liberal government in 1968 to the present and will argue that party affiliation
has had little impact on Canada’s US trade policy over this period. The
analysis will proceed in three parts . In the first part, the Canada-US trade
relationship will be discussed briefly. This will be followed by an overview of
the economic priorities of Canadian governments concerning the US from
1968 to the present, as gleaned from major policy statements such as white
papers and speeches. The final part of the article will set out some of the
reasons why party affiliation has had little substantive impact on Canada’s
Paul Gecelovsky is assistant pr ofessor and Christopher Kukucha is associ ate professor in
political science at the University of Lethbridge.
| Paul Gecelovsky & Christopher Kukucha |
| 30 | Winter 2008-09 | International Journal |
trade policy with the US over the last 40 years, including the limited electoral
salience of trade issues with the Canadian public, the difficulty of
“packaging” positions concerning the increasing complexity of trade issues
in parties’ electoral platforms, the private sector character of trade, and the
increasing intrusiveness of trade agreements to which Canada is a signatory.
CANADA-US TRADE: A BRIEF OVERVIEW
Canada has always been a trading nat ion. Internationa l trade, especially
bilateral trade with the US, is an increasingly important component of
Canada’s economic health and, therefore, a concern to all political parties.
That trade matters to Canada has long been understoo d: in 194 2, Hugh
Keenleyside wrote that for Canada, “trade and other economic factors a re
fundamental to ninety percent of all international relations.”1Almost 40
years later, the se same sentiments were voiced by an official in the
Department of External Affairs when he remarked that Canada’s foreign
policy is “90 percent oriented toward trade and commerce.”2In addition to
the importance of international trade to Canada, it needs to be stressed that
trade policy is not singular but rather plural in character. Each province and
sector has different needs and expectations concerning Canada’s economic
relations with the US, as well as the rest of the world.
Canada consistentl y leads the G8 states in terms of expor ts as a
percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). What this means is that Canada
more than any other member of the G8 relies on exports for its economic
health. Access to the US market is of prime importance. Exports to the US
over the 2001-07 period accounted for 84.5 percent of total Canadian exports,
on average. This was an increase from 80.8 percent for the 1990-2000
period, from 73.5 percent over the 1980-89 period and from 68.6 percent
over the 1970-79 period. Illustrating the importance of the American market
as a source for Canadian exports, according to export data for 2007, eight
American states would rank as Canada’s top export destination if they were
to be considered as separate markets and not part of the US.
1 Cited in John Hilliker,
Canada’s Department of External Affairs: Volume 1—The Early
Years, 1909-1946
(Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1990),260.
2 Cited in Andrew F. Cooper, Richard A. Higgott, and Kim Richard Nossal,
Relocating
Middle Powers: Australia and Canada in a Changing World Order
(Vancouver:
University of British Columbia Press, 1994), 40.
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