Abstract

The article examines the factors which affect the trend in foreign investment policy in Canada. It assesses the implications of the Foreign Investment Review Bill which is the first legislation to provide a degree of overall regulation of foreign investment. It explores the varied attitudes influencing policy-makers, the general industrial strategy considerations evolving in the government, and the national decision-making processes which affect policy formation. It concludes that the reality of relations between Canadian officials and foreign-owned firms is a mixture of cooperation and bargaining backed by a sense of basic mutuality of interests, not fundamentals.