Canadian Multinationals

Stephen J. Kees was Chief Librarian, Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology, Welland, Ontario.

When we think of multinational companies, we usually think of Canada as being on the receiving end — that is, of being a place where multinationals based elsewhere have branch operations. It comes as somewhat of a surprise, therefore, to realise that in a number of fields of enterprise Canadian multinationals are alive and generally well.

The present work, originally written in French by a professor at the University of Quebec, joins the relatively scarce literature on this subject. After a discussion of the economic theories about the operations of multinational companies, the author describes the growth and development of these companies in their particular sectors. He also gives some details of the multinationals that existed in a field from which we have withdrawn — public utilities. Since the work was originally published in 1983, the details are generally complete up to the early 1980s, and they are drawn from a wide variety of sources, which are listed. There is also a substantial bibliography on multinationals in general.

In view of the shortage of literature in this area, this work represents an important addition to our knowledge.