Continentalizing Canadian Telecommunications: The Politics of
Regulatory Reform, Vanda Rideout, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003, pp. xiii, 256
A recent headline in The Globe and Mail, “Labour unrest dogs the telecomm industry,” could have been written at almost any time over the past decade or more. The industry is facing fundamental
structural change, driven by new technologies, regulatory reform, and market shifts and management has, predictably, focused on reducing labour
costs. For anyone seeking to understand the political economy of
restructuring in the telecommunications sector, this slim volume is a
valuable addition to the literature. The author traces the story of
telecommunications regulation from its origins in the First National
Policy to neo-liberal restructuring (up to 2002), with special attention
to the impact of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA). As a work of history, the book provides a helpful
map of major regulatory and policy shifts in the telecommunications
sector. In tracing these shifts, the author discusses broader issues, such
as the key role of telecommunications in “advanced electronic
capitalism” (3) and the conflicts that accompanied the change from
“a Fordist telecommunications regime” to a
“continental” one (5).