Illiteracy and Conservatism in Canada

In Canada, the laissez-faire economic doctrine on which U.S. neo-conservatism is based was never strongly established.16 However, there are indications that owing to a parallel economic crisis here, a "politics of austerity" which is similar in some respects is emerging in Canada.17 While ideologically less well elaborated than its American cousin, it shares some of its principal themes. Drover and Moscovitch characterize this new Canadian conservative viewpoint:

The new ... ideology now in the process of formation stresses that capital accumulation is the basis of society. For the economy to grow, capital must grow. For capital to grow, there must be large profits. For profits to be large, there must be fewer wage demands, higher productivity, and fewer social welfare programs to drain off profits and capital

For example, the remarks of a prominent Canadian capitalist, as reported in a 1978 newspaper account, reflect these ideological themes:

Canadians will have to give up some of the benefits of the modern welfare state "in order to ensure the survival of the wealth-creating and Job-producing institutions," says Peter Gordon, chairman of the Steel Co. of Canada.

In a message in the firm's annual report, Gordon says government policies in recent years "have been notable for their wholesale diversion of funds into social services and away from investment in productive assets that provide employment and create wealth."18

Such policies are, to a great extent, responsible for the problems currently plaguing us -- inflation, unemployment, lagging economic growth, and chronic balance of payments deficits 19

This new ideology is often manifested in a "cutback mentality" regarding education and social services on the part of political elites. For example, in a December, 1977 speech, the new Minister of Finance, Jean Chretien, asserted that "people have put too much faith in government." In his view, "the intervention of the government has to be marginal".20 Paul Gingrich argues that:

The state... is in the process of instituting austerity programs against the working class. This means few attempts to stimulate economic growth through tax cuts for workers, expansionary monetary policy or increased spending for social services .... Demands for reduced government spending ... are demands for a redirection of government priorities more directly toward the interests of capital 21.