Oil-rich Alberta withheld 100,000 barrels per day
from the market to protest price limits. Exploration
and production in several sites were suspended until
their profitability could be established. Both Alberta
and British Columbia prepared to challenge the fed-
eral government in court. Many companies moved
to the United States, where the Ronald Reagan ad-
ministration offered a more lenient regulatory envi-
ronment and higher profits.
Impact Although the provisions of the NEP seemed
reasonable and necessary to many, the western prov-
inces blamed the loss of thousands of jobs and bil-
lions of dollars on the move. There was even the
threat of a western separatist movement. Gradually,
NEP provisions were rolled back. The unpopular
program is widely believed to have contributed to
Brian Mulroney’s Conservative Party victory in 1984.
Further Reading
Doern, G. Bruce, and Robert Johnson, eds.Rules,
Rules, Rules, Rules: Multi-Level Regulator y Gover-
nance.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
Studies the nature, causes, and dynamics of gov-
ernment regulation in and affecting Canada.
Fossum, John Erik.Oil, the State, and Federalism: The
Rise and Demise of Petro-Canada as a Statist Impulse.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. Ex-
plores reasons for federal intervention in energy
industry and analyzes its failure. Contrasts the Ca-
nadian policy conflict with those in other nations.
McDougall, I. A.Marketing Canada’s Energy. Toronto:
Canadian Institute for Economic Policy/Lorimer,
- Argues that the NEP was a positive response
to the 1970’s energy crisis and that government’s
responsibility was to promote energy indepen-
dence.
Jan Hall
See also Chrétien, Jean; Elections in Canada; Mid-
dle East and North America; Mulroney, Brian; Tru-
deau, Pierre.
National Minimum Drinking Age
Act of 1984
Identification Legislation that pushed states to
raise the legal buying age of alcohol to twenty-
one
Date Signed on July 17, 1984By threatening to withhold 10 percent of highway funds
from states that did not comply with the law, this legislation
forced all states to adopt a drinking age of twenty-one.Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) believed
that raising the age for drinking alcohol to twenty-
one would lower the number of drunk drivers and
highway fatalities. MADD convinced the Ronald
Reagan administration to help, along with Congress,
and the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was
the result. The federal government technically does
not have the power to establish the drinking age,
and, indeed, this law did not set one. Instead, the
government effectively stated that any state with a
drinking age lower than twenty-one would have 10
percent of its highway funds withheld. It should be
noted that this age of twenty-one was for buying alco-
hol, not for consumption, and some states even to-
day have allowances for some underage consump-
tion of alcohol.
There was a variety of opposition to the bill and its
enforcement, but none was successful. A lawsuit,
South Dakota v. Dole(1987), was filed by South Dakota
against the federal Department of Transportation
and Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole
challenging the tying of highway funds to something
relatively unrelated to highways (and within the
states’ realm of powers). However, the Supreme
Court held that because the act did not require the
states to raise their drinking age, it did not go far
enough into the realm of state powers to be uncon-
stitutional; since the act, in the eyes of Congress, pro-
moted the general welfare, the use of funds was
deemed constitutional. The Court overlooked the
fact that most states could not afford to go without
federal highway funds.Impact While the federal government is not legally
allowed to establish a drinking age, as that is a power
of the states, this leveraged maneuver effectively re-
sulted in a federal drinking age. Since 1984, no states
have acted to lower their drinking age, although
some have relaxed their enforcement policies.694 National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 The Eighties in America