12 - Anxious Times, 1984–2015

Summary

This chapter focuses on the growing influence globally of neoliberal corporate ideology demanding lower taxes, less government regulation, and a flexible workforce. In Canada, neoliberalism found champions in the Reform Party (est.1987), which originated in and found its greatest support in oil-rich Alberta, and in the Progressive Conservative Party led by Brian Mulroney (1984-1993). Under Mulroney, Canada entered free trade agreements with the United States and Mexico, cut corporate and income taxes; introduced a General Sales Tax, and began slashing social programs. These policies were continued by his Liberal successors, Jean Chrétien (1993-2003) and Paul Martin (2003-06). By the end of the 1990s the economy was entering a period of greater stability, but the benefits were few for ordinary Canadians. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by Muslim extremists in 2001, neoliberals founded a new Conservative Party under the leadership of Stephen Harper, who held power from 2006 to 2015. Many Canadians, suffering from the impact of the economic collapse of 2008, and troubled by Canada’s involvement in the Afghanistan War, longed for a more social democratic regime, sending enough NDP members (many of them from Quebec) to form, for the first time, the official opposition in the 2011 election.