For decades, hardy souls questioned why so many well-meaning programs such as the Atlantic Development Board (ADB), the Department of Regional Economic Expansion (DREE), the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion (DRIE), ACOA, equalization, UI and then EI and others had produced such meagre results. Why had they not closed the prosperity gap with the rest of the country? But no one was able to put the malaise into words comprehensively and rigorously.
Then three books by Fred McMahon brought the debate into sharp focus. Looking the Gift Horse in the Mouth, which put in stark terms the scale of federal transfers into the region, followed by the two-volume bible of the anti-dependency movement in Atlantic Canada: Road to Growth and Retreat From Growth.
In this article for the Citizen Centre Report Magazine, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley makes outlines AIMS’ intellectual contributions to Atlantic Canada’s quiet economic revolution. To read more click here.
