wage and price controls. Canada During the 1974 federal election, Progressive Conservative Party leader Robert Stanfield proposed the imposition of a wage and price freeze on the Canadian economy as a response to rising inflation due to the oil crisis. The Liberal government under Pierre Trudeau was originally opposed to this idea, but after winning the election, introduced the Anti-Inflation Act in 1975. This act contained wage and price controls on parts of the economy and remained in force until 1978. In 1979 the anti-inflation board was dissolved and the Anti-Inflation Act repealed. United Kingdom The National Board for Prices and Incomes was created by the government of Harold Wilson in 1965 in an attempt to solve the problem of inflation in the British economy by managing wages and prices. The Callaghan government in the 1970s sought to reduce conflict over wages and prices through a "social contract" in which unions would accept smaller wage increases, and business would constrain price increases, imitating Nixon's policy in America. Price controls ended with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Australia Australia implemented an incomes policy, called the Prices and Incomes Accord during the 1980s. The Accord was an agreement between trade unions and the Hawke Labor government. Employers were not party to the Accord. Unions agreed to restrict wage demands, and the government pledged action to minimise inflation and price rises. The government was also to act on the social wage. At its broadest, this concept included increased spending on education as well as welfare. Inflation declined during the period of the Accord, which was renegotiated several times. However, many of the key elements of the Accord were weakened over time, as unions sought a shift from centralised wage fixation to enterprise bargaining. The Accord ceased to play a major role after the recession of 1989–92, and was abandoned after the Labor government was defeated in 1996. Italy Italy imitated the United States' price and wage controls in 1971, but soon gave up the policy to focus on controlling the price of oil. The Netherlands and Belgium The polder model in the Netherlands is characterized by tri-partite cooperation between employers' organizations such as VNO-NCW, labour unions such as the FNV, and the government. These talks are embodied in the Social Economic Council (Dutch: Sociaal-Economische Raad, SER). The SER serves as the central forum to discuss labour issues and has a long