The Canadian State

Inspired by trailblazing work in the field, this wide-ranging collection makes an essential and timely intervention through new theoretical contributions that build on decades of critical analysis of the Canadian state as an agent active in capitalist development in a global era. The Canadian State explores the state’s distinctive role in the development of a political economy shaped by capitalism and settler colonialism. Paying critical attention to how the state exercises accumulation, legitimation, and coercion in unique ways, the book provides an essential guide to understanding the multidimensional character of Canada's contemporary state form. Leading contributors in their field provide cutting edge chapters on settler colonialism, land ownership, extractivism, energy, services, care work, democracy, finance, commercialization, employment, and trade and investment.

Heather Whiteside is an associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo and a fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She is a political economist with expertise in Canadian political economy, economic geography, theories of the state and capitalism, and public policy, demonstrated through a wide range of publications on issues such as public ownership, privatization, property relations, fiscal studies, and state capitalism.

Stephen McBride is a professor (Canada Research Chair in public policy and globalization, 2010-2024) in the Department of Political Science, McMaster University, where he is an associate member of the School of Labour Studies and a member of the Institute for Globalization and the Human Condition. His research interests include the crises of liberal democracy, globalization, the political economy of austerity, and the past, present and future of the state and the public domain.