Canada's Economy: The Prism of Class

Abstract

In September 1985, two documents were published that address the difficult social and economic problems facing Canada: (1) the Report of the Macdonald Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada; and (2) The Other Macdonald Report, a collection of briefs submitted to the Macdonald Commission by groups representing what the editors of the collection—Duncan Cameron and Daniel Drache—term the "popular sector." The two documents have a common starting point—the crisis of economic stagnation—but they diverge widely in both their analyses of the causes and implications of the crisis and their prescriptions for its resolution. Consequently, they provide two distinct views about the nature of the Canadian economy, views that reflect the differences in material circumstances, attitudes, and aspirations of the two main classes in Canadian society.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.