The direction of public enterprise in Canada

This article contextualises the rise, demise and diversity of the Canadian public enterprise experience in terms of its ideological, historical and managerial dimensions. Developments at both the national and sub-national levels of government are analysed. Provincial governments have exceptionally extensive jurisdictional authority in the Canadian federal system; some have been policy and administrative leaders in public enterprise. Ideological dispositions such as classical and contemporary conservatism, liberalism and social democracy are related to political parties, the developmental imperatives of state-building, and the choice of organisational and managerial forms for public enterprise.