Reciprocity (Canadian Politics) - 1880s To 1910s

1880s To 1910s

After Confederation, reciprocity was initially promoted as an alternative to Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's National Policy. Reciprocity meant that there would be no protective tariffs on all natural resources being imported and exported between Canada and the United States. This would allow prairie grain farmers access to the larger American market, and allow them to make more money on their exports. In the 1890s, it also meant that Western Canadian farmers could obtain access to cheaper American farm machinery and manufactured goods, which otherwise had to be obtained at higher prices from central Canada.

In the 1891 election, the Liberal Party of Canada ran on a reciprocity platform. It lost to Macdonald who won with his nationalist slogan, "The Old Flag, The Old Policy, The Old Leader." The Liberals temporarily shelved the concept. When reciprocity came up again in 1896, it was the Americans who proposed it to Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals. The idea excited them, and they immediately began to campaign for it. The Conservatives feared that they would lose the election again due to the valuable agreement, and despite their general belief that it would do Canada good, began to campaign against it.

The Liberal Party went on to win the 1896 election, and some years later it negotiated an elaborate reciprocity agreement with the United States in 1911. However in the 1911 election reciprocity again became a major issue, with the Conservatives saying that it would be a "sell out" to the United States. The Liberals were defeated by the Conservative party whose slogan was "No truck or trade with the Yankees".