From fur and fish to oil and minerals, Canadian development has often been understood through its relationship to export staples. This understanding, argues Paul Kellogg, has led many political economists to assume that Canadian economic development has followed a path similar to those of staple-exporting economies in the Global South, ignoring a more fundamental fact: as an advanced capitalist economy, Canada sits in the core of the world system, not on the periphery or semi-periphery.

In Escape from the Staple Trap, Kellogg challenges statistical and historical analyses that present Canada as weak and disempowered, lacking sovereignty and economic independence. A powerful critique of the dominant trend in Canadian political economy since the 1970s, Escape from the Staple Trap offers an important new framework for understanding the distinctive features of Canadian political economy.

Paul Kellogg is professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University. He is the author of "Truth Behind Bars": Reflections on the Fate of the Russian Revolution (2021) and Escape from the Staple Trap: Canadian Political Economy after Left Nationalism (2015).

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‘This is a well-written, well-structured and convincing argument against the "staples" approach to Canadian political economy. Overall, this book is important, worthwhile and (mostly) rigorous.’

Canadian Journal of Political Science vol 51:01:2018

‘Kellogg’s book has done a great service in illuminating a great, yet largely unremarked upon, trend of post-war Canadian history: the emergence of two distinct and competing groups of (English speaking) Canadian nationalists.’

LRC May 2016

‘Kellogg’s book is well researched, reflecting a sophisticated grasp of a large body of theoretical and empirical literature.’

Labour / Le Travail vol 79