American Ownership of Canada essays

American Ownership of Canada essays In 1867 Canada was heading down the road of autonomy, in 1931 Canada gained further independence from the empire by negotiating and signing the Treaty of Westminster. But within a period of a few short years of moving away from one empire we just backed into another one. As many of us know today Canada is known to many as an American satellite state. How did this happen, how did a country looking to gain greater autonomy end up having the greatest amount of foreign ownership then any other industrial country in the world. I will examine the early history of the relationship between Canada and America and examine some of the key events that bound Canada to the United States. I will mainly cover the years 1930 to the cold war era and examine what impact the close relationship has had on Canada and how the different authors feel this has affected Canadians today. When the 1930s came around the Canadian economy took a downward spiral. It was not unusual in a capitalist economy to experience short, sharp fluctuation in the economy but this time it was different (Norrie and Owram 353). By this time Canada was already dependent on the U.S, as a large part of its exports depended on the United States. Canadas share of the new economic era was created by a resource boom that was inspired by demand in the United States, now with no demand the economic situation wasnt looking good for Canada (Thompson and Randall 109). By the time the 30s came to a close things werent looking to get any better as another World War was on the brink. The situation in 1940 looked pretty bleak in terms of Canadas position in the Second World War, both in the defence of Britain and in the defence of Canadian soil itself. The Canadian Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, had two choices, either continue to support the British cause and hope for the best, or look f or an ally to who would be willing to defend both Canada and ...