Series S4 - Audio and Visual material

The Committee for an Independent Canada (CIC) was created in 1970 to further the cause of economic nationalism in Canada. The Committee was the brainchild of former Liberal Finance Minister Walter Gordon, University of Toronto economist Abe Rotstein, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Star Peter C. Newman. The CIC endeavored to mobilize a strong show of public support to force the government to take a firm stand against the flow of foreign capital into the Canadian economy. The means to this end was a national petition drive under the direction of Flora MacDonald, who conducted a national tour to establish local chapters to gather signatures. The petition in the spring of 1971 was a major success leading to an audience with Prime Minister Trudeau. The original trio soon expanded and the creation of the Committee was formally announced in September, 1971, with publisher Jack McClelland, and the editor of Le Devoir Claude Ryan as Co-Chairmen. The Committee was solidified as a national organization at their first national conference in Decenber, 1971.By the late spring of 1972 the organization had upwards of thirty-five local chapters.After the creation of the Foreign Investment Review Agency the CIC faced a crisis of the future in terms of direction and finances. Eventually the CIC was unable to sustain itself and after 1975 began to flag. Several attempts were made, unsuccessfully, to revive the organization which finally ceased operation in August 1981.