In 1982 the Macdonald Commission began its $20-million mission to find a consensus on Canada's future. The commission held hearings in 28 towns and cities, met with 700 concerned parties and assembled nearly 40,000 pages of testimony.

In his Report, Commission chair Donald S. Macdonald announced Canada must make a "leap of faith" and embrace free trade with the U.S., apparently signalling the victory of a globalizing, corporate vision of the country's development. The Other Macdonald Report reopens the debate, presenting twenty key submissions to the Commission by organizations such as the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the United Auto Workers, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the Canadian Mental Health Association and the National Farmers Union. Together these groups offer a vision of Canada where human needs take priority over capital and technology.

The Other Macdonald Report offers alternatives to the corporate vision for Canada's future, alternatives forged during the vibrant free trade debates of the mid-1980s.

DUNCAN CAMERON teaches political economy at the University of Ottawa.

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Daniel Drache is a leading expert on global trade governance and North American integration. He is the author of Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America (2004), a revised edition of which was published in Spanish in 2007. The editor of a special edition of Canada Watch—“Deep Integration: North America Post-Bush”—he is also a member of the Centre for International Governance Innovations (CIGI) North American Portal advisory committee.

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