Autonomous State: The Struggle for a Canadian Car Industry from OPEC to Free Trade

Autonomous State provides the first detailed examination of the Canadian auto industry, the country’s most important economic sector, in the post-war period. In this engrossing book, Dimitry Anastakis chronicles the industry’s evolution from the 1973 OPEC embargo to the 1989 Canada–US Free Trade Agreement and looks at its effects on public policy, diplomacy, business enterprise, workers, consumers, and firms.

Using an immense array of archival sources, and interviews with some of the key actors in the events, Anastakis examines a fascinating array of topics in recent auto industry and Canadian business and economic history: the impact of new safety, emissions, and fuel economy regulations on the Canadian sector and consumers, the first Chrysler bailout of 1980, the curious life and death of the 1965 Canada-US auto pact, the ‘invasion’ of Japanese imports and transplant operations, and the end of aggressive auto policy-making with the coming of free trade.

More than just an examination of the auto industry, the book provides a rethinking of Canada’s tumultuous post-OPEC political and economic evolution, helping to explain the current tribulations of the global auto sector and Canada’s place within it.

Dimitry Anastakis is Professor and L.R. Wilson/R.J. Currie Chair in Canadian Business History at the University of Toronto in the Department of History and the Rotman School of Management, where he teaches about business, the state and politics, globalization, and automobility. He has published twelve books and edited collections, including five books on aspects of the Canadian auto industry in North America including Dream Car: Malcolm Bricklin’s Fantastic SV1 and the End of Industrial Modernity.