Silent Surrender: The Multinational Corporation in Canada (Volume 196)

by Kari Levitt

First published in 1970, Silent Surrender helped educate a generation of students about Canadian political economy. Kari Levitt details the historical background of foreign investments in Canada, their acceleration since World War II, and the nature of intrusions by multinational corporations into a sovereign state. Silent Surrender was prophetic in predicting that the ultimate consequence of relinquishing control of the Canadian economy to United States business interests would be political disintegration through the balkanization of the country and its eventual piecemeal absorption into the American imperial system. Republished with a new preface by noted scholar Mel Watkins and a postscript by the author, Silent Surrender's basic argument and underlying economic analysis remain remarkably fresh, particularly the question of whether cultural integration into continental American life has proceeded to a point where Canada is no longer a meaningful national community.

Genres: History

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[jbhummel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first edition of this book was published in 1970. The book is an essayistic analysis of the business climate in Canada prior to its publication—written specifically on how multinational corporations from the USA had taken over large portions of particular Canadian industries.

Silent Surrender relies primarily on data, reports and theory to propose that, at this point in history, Canada was losing its sovereignty; specifically, political control over corporate activities. Generally, Kari Levitt argued from a view supposing that the country was on the verge of going beyond a point of no return; that what was being done would eventually become irreparable.

According to Levitt, the most significant source of multinational corporate control came from bilateral trade concessions between Canada and the USA—of which Canada had poorly negotiated and lost out on many reciprocal benefits. Levitt called for a repatriation of Canada's control over multinational corporate affairs that responded to and took advantage of said concessions.

My main problem with Silent Surrender is that the entire time I was reading it I believed Levitt's thesis to be completely incorrect. It's not because I read it 44 years later and am now well into a future beyond the book. It's because Levitt took a position that asserted Canada was moving towards a point of no return. As if offering trade concessions that created more favourable conditions for the USA would lead to a political apocalypse—some nightmarish end which would turn science-fiction into reality.

It was hard to take Levitt's propositions seriously because they seemed far-fetched in relation to the facts that were used to form the book's analysis. The usefulness of this book is more in the analysis than in the explanations that were offered—and so I recommend this book if only for the facts that Levitt accumulated rather than for the way that he explained the facts.

[Danya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Kari Levitt is arguably one of the most influential political economists for the Canadian Left and I can see why this book has had such a profound impact on the NCPE. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20 so reading this book 40+ years after it was written we can see that many of Levitt's predictions about the U.S. dominating the Canadian market were incorrect. Happy for us, sad for Levitt.

An important text nonetheless.