Deck 1: Investigating Ownership Concentration, Transnational Connections, and State Involvement in the Canadian Economy

Question 1

Which of the following is not a principle component of Canada's economic power structure?

A) Private-sector companies
B) Foreign owners in Canada's economy
C) The role of government
D) The Church
E) Canadian ownership of businesses outside Canada

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What do John Porter's analysis in the 1950s and 1960s and Wallace Clement's studies in the 1970s emphasize?

A) The concentration of ownership among large-scale enterprises
B) The significance of the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial economy
C) The long-lasting impacts of international monetary policies stemming from World War II
D) The relationship between economic and the military elites
E) The role of the State in creating an economic environment conducive to industry

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Through what mechanism do economic elites control large and often diverse businesses?

A) Transnational corporations
B) Holding companies
C) Economic monopolies
D) Rent seeking
E) Stocks and bonds

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The role of foreign owners in Canada's economy is the study of what phenomenon?

A) Internationalism
B) Mercantilism
C) NAFTA
D) Transnational connections
E) The welfare state

Question 5

What percentage of Canada's top 500 companies were family-controlled in 2007?

A) 10 percent
B) 21 percent
C) 32 percent
D) 40 percent
E) 63 percent

Question 6

According to recent evidence, what best describes the situation of the established family "dynasties" in Canada?

A) Their influence is increasing
B) The value of their corporate holdings is increasing
C) They have an equal amount of influence and assets
D) Their influence is decreasing
E) Their influence is decreasing and they are losing corporate holdings

Question 7

Families including the Thomsons and the Irvings speak to the confluence of what?

A) Media ownership and political influence
B) Ascribed characteristics and political influence
C) Economic centrality and wealth
D) Land ownership and transnational connections
E) Global capitalism and state involvement in the economy

Question 8

What do studies that have looked at trends in the total value of companies listed on the TSX conclude?

A) The total value of companies listed on the TSX is equally distributed among all firms
B) There are no discernable trends in levels of concentration of corporate ownership
C) The top firms on the TSX account for an increasing amount of its total value
D) There are more "small firms" on the TSX that control an ever-increasing share of its total value
E) The TSX does not include the vast majority of firms listed in Canada

Question 9

In which country is the concentration of all bank assets the most concentrated?

A) The United States
B) The United Kingdom
C) Japan
D) France
E) Canada

Question 10

Approximately what percentage of the financial industry's total assets (worth $2.214 trillion in 2005) is held by the five largest Canadian banks?

A) 50 percent
B) 64 percent
C) 78 percent
D) 90 percent
E) 99 percent

Question 11

What does the ownership of the wireless media market in Canada, Canada's satellite business, and Canada's Internet business demonstrate?

A) The media are not prone to high levels of ownership concentration in Canada
B) The government has been successful in diversifying corporate ownership of the media
C) Ownership concentration of the Canadian media sector is high, but it is decreasing
D) The media is another sector of the economy that features high and increasing ownership concentration
E) The Canadian government has a monopoly of the media sector

Question 12

What is a potential cause for concern of the changing nature of Canada's transnational connections?

A) It is a sign that Canada is having problems attracting qualified immigrants to move here
B) It is a sign that Canada may not be attracting sufficient outside interests in establishing businesses here
C) It is a sign that the national economy is being threatened from the forces of globalization
D) It is a sign that the Canadian government is restricting the flow of capital outside its borders
E) It is a sign that the Canadian people are afraid to invest their money in transnational endeavours

Question 13

Companies based in what country have the most notable presence in the Canadian economy?

A) The United Kingdom
B) Germany
C) France
D) The Netherlands
E) The United States

Question 14

What do the automotive sector and the retail sector tell us about the Canadian economy?

A) Canada relies too heavily on commodities
B) Canada invests more money abroad than is invested from outside
C) Foreign companies are still quite evident among the top companies in Canada
D) Foreign companies only figure prominently in the fringes of the Canadian economy
E) Canada is an unattractive destination for foreign capital

Question 15

What can be said about how the state has influenced business activities historically in Canada?

A) The state always protects Canadian companies by lending money to Canadian capitalists
B) The state consistently competes with Canada's private sector firms by creating state-run enterprises
C) The state always protects Canadian companies by imposing tariffs and restrictions on foreign competitors
D) The state has never offered tax reductions to foreign companies in Canada
E) The state always influences business activities, although in contradictory ways

Question 16

What evidence do researchers employ to question the claim that government intervention into the economy has become excessive in recent decades?

A) The state's role in the economy is actually quite small
B) Much government activity is directed towards assisting private-sector businesses
C) Private interests still act as the pre-eminent force
D) Most government spending occurs in the realm of public education, health care, and social and protective services
E) All of the above

Question 17

What is one direct means for measuring state economic power?

A) Determine the amount of taxation government levies on small business
B) Determine the proportion of government-controlled major enterprises within the national economy
C) Determine the proportion of government revenue that is allocated to social services
D) Determine the proportion of government activity in non-essential services
E) Determine the impact of interest rate fluctuations on the profitability of private capital

Question 18

What statement is supported by recent studies that estimate the share of total assets that are owned by the government or public sector?

A) Government economic control in Canada has been increasing since 1961
B) The private business sector has less economic control than the Canadian government
C) Since 1961 the government's share of ownership of total assets in Canada has declined
D) There are no reliable tools to gauge the total assets held by the state
E) Government economic control in Canada has been on the decline for several decades yet remains around 35 percent in 2012

Question 19

What best explains the nature of the economic policies of the federal government/ administrations since the mid-1980s?

A) The election of the Liberal Party in 1993 reversed the sale of various government-run enterprises.
B) The federal government of Justin Trudeau has sought to expand direct state involvement in the economy
C) State leaders of each party encouraged private-sector economic expansion
D) Steven Harper's Conservative government was unique in its encouragement of private-sector economic expansion
E) Economic policies of the federal government are linked in a dichotomous fashion to left/right parties

Question 20

Which of the following statements does not apply to the contemporary Canadian economy?

A) There is still a high concentration of economic power in a small group of giant private-sector corporations
B) Canadian businesses now buy or invest more in foreign countries than they do in Canada
C) The government's presence on the economic scene has declined in the past several decades
D) Non-Canadian companies exert greater influence in the economy than they ever have
E) Canada's economic developments can be seen as logical developments of the expansion of the globalizing capitalist system

Question 21

Why is it problematic to have a concentration of ownership in any sector?

A) It is harder for new competitors to do business in the sector and established firms can work in collusion to artificially set prices
B) It is harder for new competitors to do business in the sector and workers can be denied danger pay
C) It is harder for new competitors to do business in the sector
D) Established firms can work in collusion to artificially set prices
E) None of the above

Question 22

Public interest groups and workers' unions should be concerned about family-owned enterprises because:

A) Family-owned enterprises contribute over half of all private sector jobs
B) Family-owned enterprises impact worker's protections and wages
C) Family-owned enterprises negatively influence other family-owned enterprises
D) Family-owned enterprises are foreign-controlled
E) All of the above

Question 23

The pandemic pay was:

A) A program that was introduced in 2020 in the province of Saskatchewan
B) A one-time payment of $100 to those who were eligible
C) A premium amounted to as much as $100 extra for eligible front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
D) Both A and B
E) Both A and C

Question 24

Rogers, Bell and Telus accounted for what percentage of the wireless media market in 2013?

A) 79 percent
B) 75 percent
C) 92 percent
D) 90 percent
E) 40 percent

Question 25

What consequences will follow the proposed $26 billion purchase of Shaw Communications by Rogers?

A) It will shrink the telecommunications market and may result in higher prices for consumers in Canada
B) It will shrink the telecommunications market and may result in lower prices for consumers in Canada
C) It will encourage other family-owned enterprises to enter the telecommunications market
D) It will encourage new competition in the media sector
E) It will reduce Canada's sky-high wireless fees

Question 26

Foreign control in Canada after World War II had what effect on the Canadian economy?

A) Canada was subject to decisions made by foreign corporations
B) There was no effect of foreign control in Canada after World War II
C) Canadian corporations were able to make decisions in foreign economies
D) Canada became a developing country
E) Canadian banks acquired foreign assets

Question 27

The top five Canadian banks have received a third of their revenues from:

A) The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
B) Investing in foreign countries
C) The Government of Canada
D) Foreign countries investing in Canada
E) The worldwide expansion of capitalism

Question 28

Overview of "__________" is a more comprehensive gauge of government economic influence:

A) The share of the country's total assets held by the various branches of the state
B) The total assets held by the top five banks
C) Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
D) Average annual income earnings
E) Total corporate assets

Question 29

Which of the following is not a reason why some observers allege that Canadian governments often poorly utilize their taxation and spending powers?

A) They fund poorly conceived endeavours
B) Governments inadequately subsidizing the financial sector
C) Governments fund expensive social programs
D) Governments administer unprofitable enterprises
E) They fund inefficient government enterprises

Question 30

Historically, many powerful companies were owned or controlled by a small number of people.

Question 31

One component of our economic elites involves individual entrepreneurs who control large and often diverse businesses through "holding companies."

Question 32

Among companies operating in Canada, the level of concentration of ownership increased between 1977 and 1987.

Question 33

Individual families such as the Weston family have a declining influence on the nature and overall direction of our economy.

Question 34

While families like the Thomsons, Rogers, and Irvings rank among the wealthiest in Canada, they exhibit little decision-making power on the Canadian economic scene.

Question 35

Ownership concentration is apparent throughout most of the economy, save the financial sector.

Question 36

Mergers and acquisitions in the past two decades have had little to no effect on centralization of ownership in the financial sector.

Question 37

Transnational connections include only those cases where foreign enterprises own and control part of Canada's economy.

Question 38

Outside control by foreign commercial interests is a contemporary feature of the Canadian economic structure.

Question 39

During the era between World War II and 1970, Canada experienced levels of foreign control of the economy higher than other developed nations.

Question 40

Foreign ownership of Canada's total economic assets has progressively increased since World War II.

Question 41

In recent years Canadian businesses have bought or invested in foreign countries more than the other way around.

Question 42

Analysts increasingly see foreign investments as a logical consequence of economic globalization.

Question 43

Between 1985 and 2013, there was a reduction of foreign-owned companies in the top 10 companies operating in Canada.

Question 44

Most of the foreign sector of the Canadian economy is British.

Question 45

The Canadian government has only ever acted as to protect Canadian companies from foreign competition.

Question 46

In 2013, 11 government directed enterprises were among the leading 25 companies in Canada.

Question 47

The asset value of government businesses and enterprises has declined between 1961 and 2001.

Question 48

Economic globalization is the sole cause of decreasing state involvement in the Canadian economy.

Question 49

The federal Liberals under Jean Chretien adopted policies that broke drastically from those of the Mulroney government.

Question 50

The media sector has witnessed higher and increasing ownership concentration.

Question 51

The $26 billion purchase of Shaw Communications by Rogers in March 2021 will increase new competition in the telecommunications market.

Question 52

It has been suggested that Canada has a higher level of ownership concentration that has likely increased over recent decades.

Question 53

In the 1970s, high levels of foreign control in Canada meant that the economy was subjected to decisions made by foreign corporations.

Question 54

Foreign countries have heavily invested in the top five Canadian banks.

Question 55

Foreign control is most prominent in the Canadian media sector.

Question 56

The Canadian government has been actively encouraging foreign business ventures through tax reductions and other incentives to foreign companies in Canada.

Question 57

Many private-sector capitalists see the government as an unwelcome competitor in the business space.

Question 58

One major cause of decreasing state involvement in Canada is the shifting policies of the federal and many provincial administrators in recent years.

Question 59

There is a high concentration of economic power in a small group of giant private-sector corporations operating at the top of the ownership structure in Canada.

Question 60

What are transnational connections? Explain how these linkages have changed throughout Canada's history.

Question 61

Explain one of the means for measuring state economic power. According to this measure, explain how state power has changed or has not changed.

Question 62

What does research tell us about ownership concentration in Canada? What changes are evident?

Question 63

Explain the role of family-owned enterprises and "holding companies" in the Canadian economy. What impact might this have on public-interest groups, workers unions, and front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Question 64

In your own words, please define "transnational connections" and briefly elaborate on what these connections include.

Question 65

Has government intervention into the economy become excessive in recent decades? Provide arguments supporting each side of the debate.

Question 66

Is the Canadian economy controlled by foreign interests? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Question 67

Please explain what mergers and acquisitions are and how they impact ownership concentrations. In doing so, please try to reference the chapter materials to supplement your responses.

Question 68

Explain what occurred with foreign direct investment in Canada after the Second World War.

Question 69

What do you think about state involvement in the economy? Do you feel that it directly affects you?

Question 70

What do you know about Canada's family "dynasties"? What exposure do you have to them vis-à-vis the products you consume or the place of your employment?

Question 71

Are you worried about foreign ownership in Canada? Does this differ from Canadian involvement in foreign nations? Is some transnational activity more justifiable than others?

Question 72

In Canada, the financial sector is known to be a sector where ownership concentration is most prevalent. Over the past decade, mergers and acquisitions have led to only a handful of companies predominating the Canadian financial sector. Discuss a possible implication that this centralization may have on Canadians. Do you see this as a potential problem? Discuss why or why not.