Canadian Public Enterprise: A Character Study

Were evidence to be drawn only from very recent American experience, a strong case could be made for the notion that the status of business enterprise owned and operated by the government tends to be rather anomalous in a “free enterprise” country. Whatever may be said about the existence of a “mixed economy” in the United States, the philosophy of the Eisenhower Administration is plainly one which casts doubt on the legitimacy of public enterprise. With American experience in mind, this article attempts to characterize the status of public enterprise in Canada, a country whose economic system is also based on private enterprise. In the Canadian “free enterprise” garden, how should the public enterprise plant be described—as a creeper vine, a hothouse flower, or a hardy but unspectacular perennial? To what extent has it affected its surroundings and in turn been affected by them? The study proceeds on the assumption that specific examples of public enterprise furnish the best basis for generalization about its character. The examples are confined to the national government in order to keep the study within manageable limits and to facilitate reference to American experience (although no extensive comparison is intended).