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1911
While the west developed into the
breadbasket of the British Empire, British Columbia and
the Maritimes the fishery of the nation and the Yukon
the precious metal bonanza, Ontario and Quebec began to
industrialize. The high tariffs of the National Policy
had protected and nurtured many industries and allowed
them to mature and grow. Laurier had continued this
tariff practice rather then seeking a reciprocity treaty
with the US. Canadian industry constantly campaigned for
the maintenance or increase of the tariffs, stressing
the job loss that would occur if US companies were allow
to undercut Canadian ones and then pillage the natural
resources of the country with monopolistic practices.
The result of the
protection of the Canadian industries was merges and
more merges. Canadian companies such as Maple
Leaf, Massey Harris, Algoma Steel, Imperial Oil and
Dominion Textiles became dominate and controlled their
respective industries. It was the age of robber baron
industrialists and the growth of the monopolies which
could have delivered efficient cheap products while
taking care of their employees and customers, instead,
quite often pressured the workers for wage concessions,
broke unions, charged unfairly high prices and
eliminated any fair competition that tried to start up.
The Canadian government found it to their benefit to
allow business to operate this way and maintain their
support with political donations.
Although the spectre of foreign companies
was held at bay by the high tariffs and duties, the
threat of foreign ownership was not. British and
American businessmen were encouraged to invest in
Canadian companies and develop the untold wealth of the
nations natural resources. The foreign interests happily
obliged and foreign investment poured into the country.
Canadians and many politicians understood the dangers of
unchecked capitalism and in 1889 laws were passed to
break up monopolies and oligarchies but they proved
ineffective. Another attempt was made in 1910 under
Laurier with the passage of the Combines Investigation
Act. This also was a fairly weak reaction to the power
of big business.
Most large Canadian companies continued
to weald their power well into the 1950's and it has
only been in modern times when some have been
successfully challenged with effective government action
and freer competition with lower tariffs and eventually
the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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