Reciprocity (Canadian politics)
Reciprocity, in 19th- and early 20th-century
1880s to 1910s
After Confederation, reciprocity was initially promoted as an alternative to Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's National Policy. Reciprocity meant that there would be no protective tariffs on all natural resources being imported and exported between Canada and the United States. That would allow prairie grain farmers to both have access to the larger American market and make more money on their exports.
In the 1890s, it also meant that Western Canadian farmers could obtain access to cheaper American farm machinery and manufactured goods, which otherwise had to be obtained at higher prices from Central Canada.
In the
When reciprocity came up again, in 1896, it was the Americans who proposed it to Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals. The idea still excited them, and they immediately began to campaign for it. Despite their general belief it would benefit Canada, the Conservatives campaigned against it.
The Liberals went on to win the 1896 election and negotiated an elaborate reciprocity agreement with the United States in 1911. However, in the 1911 election reciprocity again became a major issue, with the Conservatives saying that it would be a "sellout" to the United States. The Liberals were defeated by the Conservatives. Their slogan was "No truck or trade with the Yankees."[1]
1980s
The concept of reciprocity with the United States was revived in the 1985 when the
See also
References
- ^ Ellis, 1939
- ISBN 9780815729730.
- ISBN 9780773532144.
Further reading
- Beaulieu, Eugene; Emery, J.C. Herbert. "Pork Packers, Reciprocity, and Laurier's Defeat in the 1911 Canadian General Election," Journal of Economic History (2001) 61#4 pp 1083–1101 in JSTOR
- Clements, Kendrick A. "Manifest Destiny and Canadian Reciprocity in 1911," Pacific Historical Review (1973) 42#1 pp. 32–52 in JSTOR
- Ellis, Lewis E. (1939). Reciprocity, 1911: a study in Canadian-American relations. Greenwood.