Neoliberal governance and resource peripheries: The case of Ontario’s mid-north during the “common sense revolution”

Abstract

Referring specifically to mid-North Ontario during the Conservative Government’s “Common Sense Revolution” (1995–2003), we theorize that state reregulation applying neoliberal principles—when coupled with technological change and broader changes caused by the internationalization of capital and labour—resulted in job losses, downsizing, closures, and aging of fixed capital and infrastructure. This led to outmigration, depopulation, reduced social and economic services, and longer travel times to access services in thinly populated regions, which now have to contend with a seasonal influx of wealthy metropolitan citizens.