Canada, Asia, and the Pacific Century

By geography, population, and public policy, Canada is a Pacific Rim country. Despite grandiose plans and rhetoric, however, Canada's economy is in retreat, dominated by the southern direction of investment and trade ties with the United States and reinforced by the huge levels of foreign investment that are increasingly rationalized along North American triad lines. The western Canadian provinces are the most Asian oriented, but Canada's business elites, scoring ever lower on measures of international competitiveness, are withdrawing to a regional base. Canada's capacity to diversify the industrial base and build new trade alliances is deeply constrained by the country's deficit and debt problems, as well as business and political elites who remain wedded to an Atlantic Rim focus.