For a long time, controversy has surrounded the issue of foreign ownership of the Canadian economy; the most recent subjects of debate have been the National Energy Program, FIRA, and the Canada-US free trade deal. This book examines these debates and analyses the causes of Canada's uniquely high level of foreign ownership. Using a wide ranging comparative approach, Laxer subjects the standard explanations of Canada's economic dependence to careful and critical scrutiny. He challenges the theories of accepted orthodoxies from Conservative to Marxist, and argues that the assumptions about external control, the role of Canadian elite and the effects of geography are not adequate to explain Canada's failure at more independent development. Laxer shows that the country was well along the path of industrialization before American branch plants and management took control of the critical mass of its resources and manufacturing industries.