Drifting Together: The Political Economy of Canada-US Integration

John McDougall has provided a masterful account of the bilateral relationship. Combining history with current events, theory with everyday experiences, McDougall sketches the economic forces, policies, and practices that have brought the two nations ever closer to political integration. Driven by Canadians' economic needs and the harsh reality of the persisting security concerns of American officials, the two countries are, in McDougall's view, destined to drift together. McDougall takes the reader through the different economic practices of the United States and Canada and the interests and circumstances that brought them to a free trade agreement in 1989. Yet McDougall is most effective in demonstrating the non-economic effects of these economic measures and the profound challenges they present to Canadian sovereignty and Canadian values. While McDougall acknowledges that this might very well be part of a global phenomenon that challenges many nation-states, the future of Canadian sovereignty hangs in the balance. At a time when Canadians are worried about both maintaining good relations with the United States and preserving what's left of Canadian sovereignty, McDougall has provided an essential guide as to how Canadians got here and what their prospects are for surviving intact. This is one of the best accounts of Canadian-American relations to appear in many, many years.

Thomas Keating, University of Alberta

Stating that Canadians face an "autonomy/prosperity trade-off" in their relations with the United States, McDougall has focused on one of the enduring truths and dilemmas of Canada's national existence. In a wide-ranging analysis, Drifting Together masterfully provides the tools needed to understand Canadian political economy in a post-9/11 world.

Gilbert R. Winham, Dalhousie University