This dissertation examines the multifaceted and pervasive impact of globalisation on
the Canadian public policy environment through a detailed analysis of the monopoly
marketing of prairie wheat. The study argues that forces associated with globalisation,
working through regionally differentiated configurations of farmer opinion and interest
groups amidst varying partisan settings, are key to understanding the changing nature of
policy-making processes, structures, and outcomes in the wheat marketing arena. The
forces associated with globalisation include the increased presence of transnational
corporations, the expansion of international trade regimes, increased interaction and cooperation
between Canadian provincial governments and US state governments, the
international harmonisation of regulations, advances in transportation technology, and
heightened levels of education, knowledge, and information. In attempting to understand
how globalisation influences the wheat policy arena, the examination uses a comparative
analysis focusing on Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The inter-governmental
harmony that had prevailed since the 1940s on the matter of Canadian Wheat Board's
(CWB's) wheat monopoly was replaced by conflict by the 1990s as the forces of
globalisation washed across the Canadian prairies. The dissertation shows that where the
absence of these forces once reinforced the CWB's wheat monopoly, the presence of
these forces now poses a formidable challenge to its continuation. Farmer opinion data
indicates that a trend away from monopoly selling toward open marketing is present
throughout the prairies. Like the presence of the forces of globalisation, anti-monopoly
opinion is particularly strong in Alberta. The dissertation will also show how the conflict
over monopoly wheat marketing was projected into the policy arena through
differentiated sets of interest group configurations and partisan environments. In doing
so, the examination points out that institutions, while often providing resistance to
change, can also serve as conduits facilitating change. The analysis shows that the
public policy network involved with the marketing of prairie wheat, as well as actors
within this network, have become increasingly internationalised. The examination
indicates that domestic governmental regulation and control have been severely
undermined in the wheat marketing arena as north-south ties increasingly undermine and
replace the east-west unity previously forged by the National Policy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/13221 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Röpke, Peter Norman |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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