LINDA MCQUAIG

In Canada and the world a vital but little-known intellectual and social struggle is going on. It is to decide whether the progressive nations of the world shall adopt laissez-faire capitalism, or instead retain and strengthen some sort of social-democratic welfare state.

The struggle seems particularly strong and eloquently fought in Canada. On the one side, the forces advocating laissez-faire (that is, unrestricted capitalism) include the neo-conservatives; the centre of this group includes a large number of federal and provincial government advisers, transnational business executives (and their hangers-on), and the newspapers formerly associated with Conrad Black.

On the other side are members of the New Democratic Party, many ordinary Canadians and . . . Canadian journalist Linda McQuaig (1951-    ).

Some might think that McQuaig and the latter group is overmatched. I am not sure.

In a series of eloquent and increasingly strong books, McQuaig has made a case for preserving the Canadian welfare state in something like the form it has achieved since 1960. She has attacked, with increasing power, the arguments made against social democracy.

In Canada, as in Britain, the left is increasingly giving ideological ground to the right. Since the late 1970s a neo-conservative political trend has developed. To an extent it is a continuation of conservative ideology that existed in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. But new ideas have also entered into the mix.

Most commentators would probably mention the long fight made by American Catholic intellectual William F. Buckley, Jr., (19 -     ) in his National Review magazine, his books, and his television appearances. Others would mention new conservative thinking, like the thinking of American Irving Kristol (19 -     ), called by some the father of neo-conservatism.

The still-growing influence of Russian-American novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) must also be admitted.

[To Be Continued and Revised]

Sources

Kristol, Irving. Two Cheers for Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1978.

McQuaig, Linda. Behind Closed Doors: How the Rich Won Control of Canada's    Tax System . . . And Ended Up Richer. Toronto: Viking (Penguin Books    Canada Ltd.), 1987.

-------. The Quick and the Dead: Brian Mulroney, Big Business and the Seduction    of Canada. Toronto: Viking (Penguin Books Canada Ltd.), 1991.

-------. Shooting the Hippo. Toronto: Viking (Penguin Books Canada Ltd.), 1995.

-------. The Wealthy Banker's Wife. Toronto: Viking (Penguin Books Canada Ltd.),    199 .

-------. All You Can Eat: Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism. Toronto: Viking    (Penguin Books Canada Ltd.), 2002.

Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of    Our Time.     New York: Rinehart & Company, 1944.

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