The Fight to Preserve Universal Social Programs: A Canadian Perspective on the Great Capitalist Restoration

Abstract

In 1987, Robert Gilpin spoke about the crisis of national welfare capitalism in a non-welfare international capitalist world [1987, 60-64]. That crisis is only in part a logical consequence of the integration of global markets. It is also a result of a relentless and successful campaign to shape the ideas of the people of the world. Karl Polanyi had already spoken in 1945 of a situation similar to the current one, where groups are pushing that which is faing ... and may even be perverting the to make it serve their aims [1957, 28]. Today's perversion of the trend has reached epic proportions. My objective in this paper is twofold: to chronicle the undermining of universal social programs, health care among them, that were virtually a defining characteristic of Canada among the countries of the Western Hemisphere and to reflect on the fortunes to date of the counter-movement to preserve those programs. For years, many Americans pointed to the Canadian universal health care system as a model to be adapted for their country. Now it appears that the reverse is more likely to be the case. The deficit reduction mania and the attack on the active state, both part of a concerted ideological campaign, offer the real prospect that an American-style medical system may take root in Canada. Sharing a border with the foremost proponent of free markets has its political consequences. The Great Capitalist Restoration in the United States spread very quickly to Canada. In 1970, Kari Polanyi Levitt wrote The Silent Surrender: The Multinational Corporation in Canada to call attention to the threat to Canada posed by the influx of mainly American firms: