Auto Pact Creating a Borderless North American Auto Industry, 1960–1971.

Graeme S. Mount is a history professor at Laurentian University and
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom.

The U.S.–Canada Auto Pact of 1965 has a reputation as one of the most successful trans-border accords of all times. It may have been Lyndon Johnson’s reward to Lester Pearson’s government for co-operation on Cyprus (which does not appear in the index) before the two men came to blows over Vietnam. At any rate, it provided unprecedented prosperity for Ontario’s economy and, by extension, the economy of all Canada. With documents from several archives, private and public, in the United States and Canada, Dimitry Anastakis now provides the story of the Auto Pact: its background, its terms, and its consequences. His book comes with the endorsement of Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, as well as that of Maureen Appel Molot, a Political Science professor at Carleton University.

The story begins with early attempts to establish Canadian car companies and outlines the problems of 1963, when Pearson became prime minister. Anastakis notes that Simon Reisman, later the chief Canadian negotiator of the 1988 Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement, was the chief negotiator, and the deal had the support of both union and management. Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers Union, believed that it would raise Canadian wages to U.S. levels and discourage outsourcing; Canadian officials saw marketing opportunities south of the border. Company executives saw that they could make their operations more efficient by having entire production runs on one side of the border, thereby avoiding duplication. Even Walter Gordon, Canada’s finance minister, who strongly believed that political independence depended upon control of one’s own economy, supported the deal. Pearson and his entourage visited the Johnson ranch in January 1965, four months before Pearson permanently antagonized Johnson with a speech offering advice on the Vietnam War, at Temple University.

Anastakis carries the story into Richard Nixon’s presidency. Nixon was a protectionist, but by then the Auto Pact was too deeply entrenched, legally and economically, to be rescinded. This, then, is a well written, well researched story of a widely supported success which became law in the nick of time and which benefited millions of people.