Energy: The Roots of National Policy

Abstract

On October 28th, 1980, the Liberal government of Canada, recently returned to power under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau following a brief Conservative interregnum, introduced its National Energy Program (NEP) in conjunction with the release of its first budget. The new Canadian energy policy was interventionist, centralist, and nationalistic, especially when compared with the market-oriented policies of the previous Conservative administration, and it provoked a storm of political controversy.