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"Economic Self Sufficiency" has a deep heritage in Canadian conservatism, running all the way back to MacDonald. Frankly a lot of the results were bad
Under MacDonald's policy economic self sufficiency, Canada persisted with an economy significantly less productive than any other Anglosphere economy except Ireland.
notably, after MacDonald died and Laurier defeated his successors in 1896, the National Policy was softened, and per capita output rapidly converged with the rest of the English-speaking world
Now you might say "GDP is just GDP" and sure, that's to some extent true, but the costs of the National Policy come out in other ways. Persistent lack of opportunity lead to net outmigration as Canadians sought their fortunes elsewhere
The Maritime Provinces, which had previously been part of a rich and integrated coast-wise economy, were left as comparatively isolated out-ports of Central Canada, and their relative economic weakness can be traced to this time
