Christopher Armstrong

Maturing in hard times : Canada's Department of Finance through the Great Depression

Focusing on the causes and extent of the Depression of the 1930s and its impact on a wide range of governmental policies, Bryce describes the departments increasing involvement in the formation and conduct of economic policies. The department was involved in events ranging from the collapse of the gold standard in 1931, to the possible default of the governments of the western provinces, to the introduction of federal unemployment and housing policies, to the founding of the Bank of Canada. Bryce presents a fascinating portrait of the early Department of Finance and the informality of the policy process in what was obviously a smaller, simpler Ottawa. From the vantage point of his years of experience within the department, he offers insightful analyses of the central economic issues of this century.

Canadian Promoters and American Markets: Regulating the Irregular, 1945–55

Canada has long depended heavily upon investment from the United States, particularly in the natural resource sector. Why, in the decade after World War II, did Canadian authorities permit the sale of large quantities of highly speculative mining and oil stocks south of the border in defiance of American law? Why run the risk of angering officials in the United States and perhaps endangering access to capital markets there? The financial community in Canada contended that the sale of speculative shares was essential to the countrys speedy development, and provincial regulators claimed that they lacked the necessary powers to control promoters selling in the US. Negotiations between the two national governments to amend the Extradition Treaty so that the worst offenders could be hailed before American courts failed to provide a remedy to this situation, so that it continued to threaten the friendly relations between the two countries from time to time.

Private Property in Peril: Ontario Businessmen and the Federal System, 1898–1911

Two opposing groups of business interests — large, internationally-oriented financiers on the one hand and local businessmen and small manufacturers on the other — engaged in economically-based political conflict over the proper nature of the federal system in early twentieth-century Canada. The national financial community proved unable to protect its conception of private property rights by legal and political means at the national level, and the resulting victory of provincial rather than federal control over property rights made possible the creation of a publicly owned hydro-electric system in Ontario.