Martin, Lawrence. Pledge of Allegiance: The Americanization of Canada in
the Mulroney Years. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993. 296 pages.
Lawrence Martin, a former Washington and Moscow correspondent for The
Globe and Mail, has written several previous books on international affairs.
He also admits that he voted for free trade in 1988. Since the free trade
agreement took effect in 1989, Martin and other Canadians are reconsidering
the quality of life in what is beginning to look like America's 51st state.
Brian Mulroney, Michael H. Wilson, and other Tories have made their mark
since they were first elected in 1984. From trade to taxes, from foreign
policy to film policy, by the time this book appeared in 1993, Canada was
in line with U.S. policy and the Wall Street sharks swimming behind it.
After three years of free trade, nearly 20 percent of Canada's
manufacturing jobs had vanished. Industries died, or they packed up and
moved to the U.S., or American head offices no longer maintained Canadian
subsidiaries. The U.S. economy is ten times the size of Canada's, and when
tariff walls came down, American exports to Canada grew more than Canada's
exports to the U.S. (Soon Mexico was brought into the free-trade deal with
NAFTA, whereupon U.S. jobs started moving south in search of low wages.)
Meanwhile, the Tories began tampering with the social safety net, as Michael
Wilson made quiet cuts in medicare and froze federal transfer payments to
provinces. After all, someone has to pay when the rich become richer.
ISBN 0-7710-5663-X
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