Hurl, Chris

This website is devoted to documenting the early history of free trade struggles leading up to the adoption of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (1988). It contains interviews with activists and related ephemera from the 1980s, documenting Canada's rich history of activism against free trade. You will find information of what motivated activists to organize networks and coalitions across Canada and globally to challenge free trade, as well as an archive of publications and videos, along with a "free trade in Canada" timeline of important dates and events.

The implementation of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) in January 1989 marked a decisive moment in the rise of neoliberalism as a political project in Canada. While the left, and socialist political economists in particular, played a central role in galvanizing opposition to the agreement and contributed in no small part to the demise of the Conservative government in 1993, the free trade agenda continued to move forward through the 1990s. This Special Issue revisits the history of struggles against free trade in Canada with two aims in mind: first to remember the coalitions through which opposition was organized, the mobilization of socialist critiques by activists and intellectuals, and the key events leading up to the adoption of the agreement. Second, drawing from this history to make sense of how things have changed over the past 30 years, as right-wing nationalists have increasingly taken the lead in opposing free trade, while neoliberals have sought to rebrand their project as ‘progressive’. How can those on the left effectively confront the project of free trade today while at the same time challenging both far-right nationalism and neoliberal globalization?