摘要：The Macdonald Royal Commission took three years and spent roughly $21 million. In addition to the three volumes of the main Report, there are 72 volumes of background research.·This review will coyer only the main Report, which is not entirely satisfactory because many of the assumptions and assertions of the Report rely upon the research papers. Nonetheless, even this restricted material leaves the reviewer with a prodigious task, given the 1900 pages that it covers. The major economic recommendations of the Report concern free trade and labour market adjustment. Both can be described, by the Report's own admission, as a "leap of faith". In fact, the two may weil be only one basic recommendation: free trade. Given the inability of the Commissioners to specify who will benefit from free trade and the definite structural changes that it will require, the recommendations for changing unemployment insurance and social programs appear to be the stick and the carrot to reduce the natural resistance to the inevitable changes the free trade policy would require.
