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National policy and regional development: a footnote to the Deutsch Report on Maritime Union ROBIN F. NEILL Most Canadian history, and with it Maritime history, was shaped in the two decades separating the First and Second World Wars. It expresses the growth of the Canadian nation up to the first World War and defends it against the disintegration that accompanied or constituted the Great Depression prior to the Second. Since the Second World War the nation has renewed its growth, but with a difference. What seemed to be disintegration in the 1930's has clarified itself as only a change in direction. Accepted history explains the old National Policy of 1878 and defends it or defends its results. The new direction, still being discovered, is now producing a new policy, and the articulation of the new national policy is producing a new historical conceptualization of the nation. Hopefully the present paper will contribute to the understanding of what this means for the Maritimes and for all Canada. The Maritimes and Confederation The history of the Canadian Maritimes, in large measure, has been determined by the spread of civilization through North America under the impetus of advances in technology, especially advances in the means of transportation and communication. The consequent spread of the English-speaking economic community that eventually dominated in the region first took the form of military anq naval activity centered in the New England colonies. Following the conquest of New France and the unification of the entire area under British rule the Maritimes came under the economic influence of Boston. Union was short lived, however, as the economic and political expansion that led to British dominance eventually led to a declaration of independence on the part of the 12 United States and to a form of defensive expansionism against the United States in the newly-absorbed, staples-pro du c i n g regions to the north. Thus political and military developments associated with the advancing economic frontier accelerated the rate of advance. For half a century after the Revolution these secondary effects were themselves both accentuated by and consequent upon the flowering of an international economy in the North Atlantic. The economics of the wooden sailing ship, commerce and the export of fish, timber and other staples, was at first supported by decided political efforts to bring about internal agricultural development. With the advent of steam technology internal development turned to the production of iron and coal and the relationship changed. Until the 1860's Maritime and regional internal development complemented one another but thereafter the continental bias of the new technique became evident as the focal point of related enterprise moved to the Canadas. From one point of view Confederation was an attempt to create a continental metropolitan centre to facilitate the development of a new economy in the Maritime interior. From another point of view it was an attempt to rescue the old eGonomy from the depressing effects of that development. The resulting balance of forces continued until the end of the First World War when the expansionary drive of the railroad itself was spent; leaving the entire Maritime region, the old and the new economies, in a deep· economic trough. The wave of advancing civilization had moved north from New England 1 and passed on to central Canada leaving the Maritimes to their own devices. From this situation has come the idea of independent growth that has characterized the economic policies underlying the recent move towards Maritime union. The early development of the Maritime region was chronologically and typically prior to the development of Canada under the National Policy of 1878 and had a marked Revue d'etudes canadiennes influence upon it. Similarly the adverse effects of the National Policy upon the region created a reaction that contributed heavily to the subsequent revision of that policy when the technological expansion upon which it was based came to an end. Protectionist and expansionary policies that had been initiated in the Maritimes shortly after the War of Independence were transformed by changing technical constraints when rail transport succeeded water. The resulting new form of development failed to indigenize within the region and finally institutionalized in Confederation...

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