ABSTRACT
Most accounts of Canada's modern development begin by noting its role as a source of raw materials for contending European powers, primarily Britain and France (Easterbrook and Aitken 1988: Ch. 1; Norrie and Owram 1996: Parts 1 and 2). As such, Canada's location in the world was determined externally: it was a peripheral zone integrated for certain purposes with the European heartland. Later, with permanent European settlement, areas like Canada achieved a degree of self-government, as far as the European settler populations were concerned, and attempted to manage the terms of their integration into the international political economy.
