Take a new look at

‘Americanization’ of Canada

A recent study by the Labor Research Association in the United States supplies some
up-to-date statistics on what it calls the ““4mericanization of Canada.”

The study has come out just
in tim: to add fuel to the fire of
the Gordon-Sharp debate over
national policy—a debate which
began after publication of form-
er Finance Minister Walter Gor-
don’s new book: A Choice for
Canada: Independence or Colo-
nial Status.

*Too much of Canadian indus-
try is controlled abroad,” was
one of the main theses of Gor-
don’s book,

Just what is the U.S, stake in
this country? According to the
Labor Research Association stu-
dy, “the total U.S, long-term in-
vestment in Canada is now
around $25 billion, The magni-
tude of this figure in the Cana-
dian context may be illustrated
by the fact that it is nearly as
big as the gross national debt.

The massive U.S, control of
Canadian industries that goes
with this investment amounts to:
auto 97 percent; rubber 91 per-
cent; electrical 66 percent; che-
micals 54 percent; farm equip-
ment 52 percent; total manufac-
turing over 50 percent; oil and
gas 60 percent; mining and smelt-
ing 52-percent,”

The study recalls that a New
York Timesreport from Toronto,
on January 10, based on a com-
pilation by the Globe and Mail,
listed 19 sales of Canadian-own-
ed companies or assets to for-

eign investors last year and 30
such takeovers in 1964,

The Times story says critics
of foreign interests argue that:
“Canadians are losing control of
their own economy, that U,S,
subsidiaries serve American in-
terests (declining to compete
with the tariff in the export
market, for example), and that
economic control inevitably leads
to political control,”

The labor study describes the
types of control that develops as
a result of U,S,takeovers in the
following terms:

“Subsidiary companies in Can-
ada cannot export anywhere
they might impinge on business
of world-wide connections of
their parent companies, Although
Canadian law does not fully pre-
vent trading with Cuba and
China, subsidiaries of U,S, par-
ents have been prevented from
doing so,

“The tied Canadian plants
must import parts, components
and materials from their parents
at who-knows-what prices. Re-
search in Canada is stultified by
the requirement to use techni-
cal know-how and designs from
the U,S, Costs in Canada are
boosted artificially by inter-com-
pany charges for patents, royal-
ties, advertising, administration
and what-have-you from south
of the border.

Victoria labor hits
‘skilled help’ hoax

Victoria Labor Council has
vigorously protested Canadian
recruitment of professional and
skilled workers through the im-
migration department,

Harry Anderson, secretary-
treasurer of the labor body,
charged immigration drives are
just a way of making a fast buck
for transportation interests, ac-
cording to a recent story in the
Victoria Daily Colonist.

“Lots of these immigration
drives are not based on the need
for immigrants,” he said, “There
is big money to be made in im-
migration for the transport com-

panies,

“The British immigration
campaign is based on how many
ships are going to be tied up
when the tourist season is over,”
Anderson said, “Somebody is
making a fast buck out of this.”

The council was debating in-
formation that officers of the

Canadian immigration depart-
ment were recruiting workers in
Washington state.

«The peculiar. thing about the
whole story is that they. say
they’ve got to import construction
workers,” ‘said council vice-
president Jack Driscoll, “There
is plenty of construction workers
around, Every craft union in the
area has a-number of unemployed
on its books,

«Doesn’t it strike you that they
are trying to cut your conditions
by flooding the market?”

The same council meeting also
sent a wire of protest or pro-
vincial attorney-general Robert
Bonner in regard to RCMP incite-
ments and provocations in the
electrical workers dispute at
Lenkurt Electric in Vancouver,

The wire strongly denounced
the anti-labor role played by the
Mounties. during~ this critical
labor dispute.

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*Furthermore, half of Can-
ada’s imports from the U,S, are
from U,S, parent companies to
their Canadian subsidiaries—i.,e.,
an important source of Canada’s
own balance-of-payments prob-
lem, So, in February, 1965, when
U.S, subsidiaries were officially
encouraged to reduce outflows
of U.S, capital and to repatriate
excess liquid holdings it will be
appreciated why the Canadian
reaction was not wholly positive.

*What took place, however,

was that as U,S,-controlled de-
posits in Canadian banks were
withdrawn in response to the

guidelines, the banks met the
drain in part by liquidating in-
vestments in the U,S, and ‘in part
by withdrawing funds and in-
creasing their liabilities in other
countries,”

The Canadian government
complied with the U,S, guide-

lines policy and, as the Domin-
jon Bureau of Statistics put it:

“Canadian banks were requested
by the Canadian government to
conduct their foreign currency
operations in a way that would
reinforce and not prejudice the
effects of the United States pro-
gram.”

One of the curious features of
the Gordon-Sharp debate is the
reaction to it in the United
States, where even Sharp’s mod-
eration is seen as a nationalistic
threat to U.S, investment,

Taking issue with Gordon and
proposing a program for what he
described as “an economic mani-
festo for strengthening Canada’s
independence,” Finance Minister
Sharp actually put forward plans
for “increased economic inter-
dependence between the na-
tions,”

The existence of two super-
powers, the USA and USSR, as

our next-door neighbors, he said,
means that “we in Canada must
accept that our independence is
limited.”

It is apparent that in the
United States even this position
is seen as one of economic na-
tionalism and Sharp is put into
the same boat as Gordon. As an
editorial in the May 15 New
York Times puts it:

“Economic nationalism has
strong emotional and political
appeal in Canada, It threatens

’to become more heated as the

result of demands for greater
economic independence from the
United States made by Finance
Minister Mitchell Sharp and his
predecessor, Walter L. Gordon.”

The Times editorial continues:

“Unquestionably, Canada’s
small population and less con-
centrated markets place it at a
competitive disadvantage. The
remedy, however, is not in an
unrealistic and emotional de-
mand for Canadian indepen-
dence, but in a better economic
balance between the United
States and Canada,

‘Such a balance cannot be
realized by erecting new barriers
to investment or in restricting
investment already in place, Re-
sort to protectionist measures in
an attempt to get rid of the alle-
ged domination of American firms
would hurt Canada much more
than the United States,”

WHY DO WE NEED

ROAST

OF

BEEF

UP 21.5%

THE MONEY?

ROAST

CHICKEN
UP 26.7%

WONDER WHERE YOUR MONEY GOEs:

THEN TAKE A LOOK!

Price
March 31 March 29 Percent
Quantity 1964 1 Increase
Standing Rib R Cc da Choice. Ib. 65 79 21.5
Pork Loin Chops: Centre Cuts .......... Ib. 65 79 21.5
Side Bacon: No. 1 Quality_........... Ib. 59 98 66.1
Fresh G d Beef Ib. 49 53 8.2
Roasting Chicken:
Manor House Frozen Fresh _.__....... Ib. 45 57 26.7
Whole or Half Shank Ham _. Ib. 49 89 81.6
Apples, Newton... _ Ib. 14 25 78.6
Coffee: 1 Ib. tin Edwards... Ib. 79 85 7.6
Eggs: Fresh Large, :
Breakfast Gems, Gr. A___........... dozen .43 59 37.2
Bread: Fresh Baked, Skylark... 16-0z.loaf .20 23 15.0
Cc d Milk 16 oz. 16 18 12.5
Cheddar Cheese, Mild _................... Ib. 67 73 9.0
Ice Cream: Lucerne Party Pride... 3 pt. 59 69 16.9
Green Peas: Bel-Air Prem. Frozen____. 2 Ib. 40° 49 22.5
Tomato Juice: Townh
or Hunts, fancy... 48 oz. | .30 38 - 26.7
Margarine, Dalewood......................- Ib. .20 24 20.0
Apple Juice: Townhouse, Sun Rype 48 oz. 33 43 30.3
Coffee: Blue Ribbon... Ib. 85 91 7.1
Milk, Fresh, Lucerne, Homo. 3.8% half gal. .47 52 10.6
2-10 at. ‘22 «25 ~—(«13<6
Beans with Pork: Taste Tells... 28 fl. ozs. .25 28 12.0
Lettuce: Freeh... saeaat Wate Male each 13 18 38.5
P Gem da No. 2 :
UP 81.6% Dryland Netted. 20lbs. 79 95 203

The above is reproduced from a recent leaflet issued by |WA Vancouver Local 1-217 proving

UP 22.5%

the need for substantial wage increase for workers this year.

May 27, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8

UP 38.5%