Consumption and Commodities: The Political Economy of Canada’s Growth Model

This dissertation investigates Canada’s contemporary growth model in the context of the broader growth crisis affecting advanced capitalist democracies. Drawing on the Growth Model Perspective (GMP), it identifies Canada’s hybrid growth model (GM) and develops an explanatory narrative emphasizing the interplay between structural-institutional characteristics – resource abundance, geography, federalism, majoritarianism – and global economic forces such as commodity prices, financialization, and liberalization. Canada’s GM shares similarities with other Anglo economies, including the United States and United Kingdom, relying heavily on household consumption driven by household debt and house price appreciation. Drawing on macroeconomic data and policy documents, the dissertation shows how house-price-driven consumption growth has been facilitated by global interest rate dynamics, majoritarian political institutions, and policies subsidizing demand for homeownership. Politically, the growth strategy underpinning house price appreciation enjoys broad partisan consensus, sustained by a ‘housing bloc’ of homeowning voters, aspiring homeowners, and financial institutions. However, Canada’s GM diverges from typical consumption-led models through its dependence on commodity-driven investment. Investment in Alberta’s oil sands has become a crucial source of growth (and stagnation), driven by global commodity prices, Canada’s resource wealth, and provincial autonomy. Supported by a ‘commodity bloc’ of resource-rich provinces, the oil and gas industry, and major banks, the federal growth strategy focuses on expanding production and export capacity in the sector. Simultaneously, Canada experienced unusually severe deindustrialization, characterized by declines in manufacturing employment and output. This reflects the combined impacts of currency appreciation (Dutch disease), extreme trade dependence on the US (Canadian disease), and neoliberal reforms that curtailed federal industrial policy capacity. Politically, diminished manufacturing interests in Ontario and Quebec, coupled with resource-producing provinces’ growing influence, reshaped federal priorities away from protecting manufacturing. This dissertation contributes to comparative political economy by presenting Canada as a hybrid GM, highlighting that national models are more diverse and dynamic than traditional classifications suggest. It underscores the role of specific sectors, notably oil and gas, and the institutional dimension of federalism in shaping national economic trajectories. Finally, it speaks directly to Canadian political economy debates by affirming Canada’s ‘core’ position within global capitalism while illustrating its continued vulnerability to the ‘staples trap.’

Department dc:contributor.department

Political Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Abbott, Christopher

Advisors dc:contributor.supervisor

• Hanniman, Kyle
• Amyot, Grant

• Political science
• Comparative politics
• Canadian politics
• Political economy
• Comparative political economy
• Canadian political economy
• Varieties of capitalism
• Growth models

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1974/34491

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:queensu.scholaris.ca:1974/34491