Canadian Maritime Development

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the Canadian maritime region that has traditionally lagged that of other regions and provinces within Canada, and the reasons for this relative backwardness. The paper explains that on the one hand the regions have relatively easy access to coastal and internal waterways while, on the other hand, the area's inaccessibility and harsh climate makes it somewhat problematic to develop. The paper points out that it is the clear absence of a cohesive economic development plan for the region that is likely the real culprit in the maritime's inability to achieve economic parity with the rest of Canada during the important phase of Canada's overall economic expansion. The paper further explains that the lack of such a strategy allowed the transportation routes to become underutilized or misappropriated and the industrial diversity in the region to become unsustainable through a lack of diversity. In conclusion, the paper shows that without major population centers and the industrial base that typically accompanies them, the maritimes have been historically challenged as an economic unit, and until this industrial and economic diversity is solved the region will continue to be dependent on the central government and will continue to lack the population base to support an expanding economy.

From the Paper:

"Canada's various regions and provinces have all developed in a variety of fashions and according to different economic imperatives which has led to the divergent opinions regarding its industrial development. Because most of the other provincial areas are more easily traversed that the Maritime area, they have been more easily exploited, in an economic sense, that the Maritime region. This economic exploitation of some of the other regions within Canada has been described in the following manner."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Acheson, T.W. "The National Policy and the Industrialization of the Maritimes, 1880-1910." Acadiensis, 1/1(1971): 3-28.
• Alexander, D. "Economic Growth in the Atlantic Region, 1880-1940." In Mel Watkins and H.M. Grant. Canadian Economic History, Ottowa, 1993.
• Caves, Richard and Richard Holton. The Canadian Economy: Prospect and Retrospect. Harvard University Press, Cambridge; 1959.
• Forbes, E.R. "The Intercolonial Railway and the Decline of the Maritime Provinces Revisited." Acadienis, 24/1(1994): 3-26.
• Gerriets, Marilyn. "The Origin of a Hinterland: Agricultural Resources and Manufacturing Development at Confederation." Unpublished Manuscript(1999).

More papers on Canadian Maritime Development:

• Argumentative Essay # 102724 : "Development in Maritime Canada"
• Research Paper # 66351 : "Transcontinental Railroads and the Development of Canada"
• Research Paper # 42520 : "Canadian Economic Development"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: