The foreign policies ofCanada and its predecessor colonies were under British control until the 20th century. This included wars with theUnited States in 1775-1783 and 1812–1815. Economic ties with the U.S. were always close. Political tensions arose in the 19th century from anti-British sentiment in the U.S. in the 1860s. Boundary issues caused diplomatic disputes resolved in the 1840s over the Maine boundary and in the early 20th century over the Alaska boundary. There is ongoing discussion regarding the Arctic. Canada-US relations have been friendly in the 20th and 21st centuries.[1]
Canada participated in Britain's wars, especially the Boer war, World War I and World War II. However, there was a bitter dispute between Francophone and Anglophone Canada during the First World War. Canada had its own seat in theLeague of Nations but played a small role in world affairs until the 1940s. Since then it has been active inNATO, theUnited Nations, and in promoting its middle-power status into an active role in world affairs.[2]
TheBritish North American colonies which today constitute modern Canada had no control over their foreign affairs until the achievement ofresponsible government in the late 1840s. Up to that time, negotiations were carried out by the governors appointed by the British government to encourageimmigration, settle local disputes and to promote trade.[3]
TheTreaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the war.[4] Britain made several concessions to the United States at the expense of the North American colonies.[5] Notably, theborders between Canada and the United States were officially demarcated;[5] all land south of theGreat Lakes, which was formerly a part of theProvince of Quebec and included modern-dayMichigan,Illinois andOhio, was ceded to the Americans as theNorthwest Territory. Fishing rights were also granted to the United States in theGulf of St. Lawrence and on the coast ofNewfoundland and theGrand Banks.[5]
Britain ignored part of the treaty and maintained their military outposts in theGreat Lakes areas it had ceded to the U.S., and they continued to supply theirNative American allies with munitions. The British evacuated the outposts with theJay Treaty of 1795, but the continued supply of munitions irritated the Americans in the run-up to the War of 1812.[6]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Notable interactions from the colonial period include theNootka Convention, theWar of 1812, theRush–Bagot Treaty, theTreaty of 1818, theWebster–Ashburton Treaty, and theOregon Treaty. Before the granting ofresponsible government, British diplomats handled foreign affairs and had the goal of achieving British goals, especially peace with the United States; domestic Canadian interests were secondary. TheCanadian–American Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 signalled an important change in relations between Britain and its North American colonies. In this treaty, the Canadas were allowed to impose tariff duties more favourable to a foreign country (the U.S.) than to Britain, a precedent that was extended by new tariffs in 1859, 1879 and 1887, despite angry demands on the part of British industrialists that these tariffs be disallowed by London.[7]
On a much smaller scale, Irish activists called Fenians based in the United Stateslaunched several tiny raids into Canada, in 1866-1871. All were quickly repulsed.[8] One factor leading to confederation was the greatly exaggerated fear in Canada that the U.S. might seize Canada after winning the American Civil War.[9]
Soon afterCanadian Confederation, the first prime minister SirJohn A. Macdonald appointedSir John Rose as his lobbyist in London. WhenAlexander Mackenzie became prime minister, he sentGeorge Brown to represent Canada in Washington during British-American trade talks. After theConservative Party came back to power in 1878, the government sentAlexander Galt to London, as well as to France and Spain. Although the British government was concerned about this nascent Canadian diplomacy, it finally consented to giving Galt the formal title ofHigh Commissioner in 1880. A trade commissioner was appointed to Australia in 1894. As High Commissioner,Charles Tupper helped negotiate an agreement with France in 1893 but it was countersigned by the British ambassador as the Queen's official representative to France. Meanwhile, in 1882 the province of Quebec made its first of many forays into the international community by sending a representative,Hector Fabre to Paris in 1882.[10]
Canada's responses to international events elsewhere were limited at this time. During 1878 tensions between Britain and Russia, for example, Canada constructed a few limited defences but did little else. By the time of theBritish campaign in Sudan of 1884–85, however, Canada was expected to contribute troops. Since Ottawa was reluctant to become involved, theGovernor General of Canada privately raised 386voyageurs at Britain's expense to help British forces on theNile river. By 1885, many Canadians offered to volunteer as part of a potential Canadian force, however the government declined to act. This stood in sharp contrast to Australia (New South Wales), which raised and paid for its own troops.[11]
According toCarman Miller, Canada took a strong interest in theSecond Boer War, 1899–1902, when the British with great difficulty suppressed the Boer movement in South Africa. Support for the war was strong in theAnglophone community, as thousands of ambitious young men volunteered and fought. However, there was resistance in rural Canada, thelabor movement, non-Anglican clergyman, and the largeIrish Catholic community, as well as the smallerDutch andGerman communities. Supporters saw an opportunity to assert that Canadian national identity was compatible with ties with the mother country. That alliance, they felt, would help protect them from American threats. Other supporters identified strongly with the pan-Britannic theme, cheering for "Queen and country!" TheFrench Canadian community realized how different it was from Britannia, and began launching separatist movements.[12]
The first Canadian commercial representative abroad wasJohn Short Larke. Larke became Canada's first trade commissioner following a successful trade delegation to Australia led by Canada's first Minister of Trade and Commerce,Mackenzie Bowell.[13]
TheAlaska boundary dispute, simmering since theUS purchased Alaska from Russia of 1867, became critical when gold was discovered in the CanadianYukon during the late 1890s. Alaska controlled all the possible ports of entry. Canada argued its boundary included the port ofSkagway, held by the U.S.. The dispute went to arbitration in 1903, but the British delegate sided with the Americans, angering Canadians who felt the British had betrayed Canadian interests to curry favour with the U.S.[14][15]
In 1909, Prime MinisterWilfrid Laurier reluctantly established aDepartment of External Affairs and the positions of Secretary and Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, largely at the urging of the Governor-GeneralEarl Grey andJames Bryce, the British ambassador in Washington, who estimated that three-quarters of his embassy's time was devoted to Canadian-American matters.[citation needed]
Laurier signed a reciprocity treaty with the U.S. that would lower tariffs in both directions. Conservatives underRobert Borden denounced it, saying it would integrateCanada's economy intothat of the U.S. and loosen ties with Britain. The Conservative party won the1911 Canadian federal election.[16]
TheCanadian Forces and civilian participation in the First World War helped to foster a sense ofBritish-Canadian nationhood. The British-oriented population was empowered, and everyone else was marginalized, especially the French, Irish Catholic, and East European elements.Thefamous military achievements came during theSomme,Vimy,Passchendaele battles and what later became known as "Canada's Hundred Days". The costs were high: 67,000 killed and 173,000.[17]
British Canadians were annoyed in 1914-16 when Washington insisted on neutrality and seemed to profit heavily while Canada was sacrificing its wealth and its youth. However, when theUS finally declared war on Germany in April 1917, there was swift cooperation and friendly coordination, as one historian report:
Official co-operation between Canada and the United States—the pooling of grain, fuel, power, and transportation resources, the underwriting of a Canadian loan by bankers of New York—produced a good effect on the public mind. Canadian recruiting detachments were welcomed in the United States, while a reciprocal agreement was ratified to facilitate the return of draft-evaders. A Canadian War Mission was established at Washington, and many other ways the activities of the two countries were coordinated for efficiency. Immigration regulations were relaxed and thousands of American farmhands crossed the border to assist in harvesting the Canadian crops. Officially and publicly, at least, the two nations were on better terms than ever before in their history, and on the American side this attitude extended through almost all classes of society.[18]
Support for Britain caused a majorpolitical crisis over conscription, asFrancophones, especially in Quebec,rejected national policies.[19] TheAustro-Hungarian Empire was an enemy in the war. Large numbers of its emigrants had settled in thePrairie Provinces. Some 8,000 were classified asenemy aliens,and were interred in camps. Another 80,000 had to report regularly to thelocal police.[20]
TheLiberal party was deeply split, with most of itsAnglophone leaders joining theunionist government headed by Prime MinisterRobert Borden, the leader of theConservative party.[21] The Liberals regained their influence after the war under the leadership ofWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, who served as prime minister with three separate terms between 1921 and 1949.[22]
As its reward for significant contributions to the victory, Prime Minister SirRobert Borden won London's approval that Canada be treated as a separate signatory to theTreaty of Versailles.[citation needed]
After Canada shared in victory in the First World War, there were two alternative strategies for Canada's foreign policy, according toC.P. Stacey. The Conservative Party, under prime ministersRobert Borden andArthur Meighen, called for close cooperation with London as part of the British Empire. This carried on the wartime coalition built on pro-British elements. However the Liberal Party, under its new leader Mackenzie King, sought a nationalistic and isolationist approach of the sort that appealed to the French Canadian element, as well as other non-British ethnic groups. King, acting as his own Foreign Minister, achieved his goal by close cooperation with his Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs,Oscar D. Skelton, and withClifford Sifton, the influential newspaperman fromManitoba.[23]
In January 1920 Canada was a founding member of theLeague of Nations and was granted full membership. It acted independently of London. It was elected to the League Council (governing board) in 1927. It did not play a leading role, and generally opposed sanctions or military action by the League. The League was virtually defunct by 1939.[24] Both the Borden and King governments made it clear that "Canada lived 'in a fireproof house far from flammable materials' and felt no automatic obligation to the principle of collective security".[25] Very much like the United States, Canada turned away from international politics. Instead, King focused his attention on good relations with the United States and on greater independence from Great Britain, moving into a position of near isolation. Thus, in 1922 King refused to support the British to enforce a peace settlement during theChanak Crisis, when the revolutionaryGovernment of the Grand National Assembly attacked and drove out the Greeks in Turkey.[26]
The government operated a Canadian War Mission in Washington, 1918 to 1921, but it was not until King became Prime Minister in 1921 that Canada seriously pursued an independent foreign policy.[27] At anImperial Conference in 1923 it was agreed that no resolution was binding unless approved by each dominion parliament. Canada then for the first time signed a treaty (the 1923Halibut Treaty with the US) without British participation, and it proceeded to establish its own embassy in Washington. Further steps to external sovereignty were theBalfour Declaration of 1926 and theStatute of Westminster in 1931. In 1923, Canada independently signed theHalibut Treaty with the United States at Mackenzie King's insistence – the first time Canada signed a treaty without the British also signing it. In 1925, the government appointed a permanent diplomat to Geneva to deal with the League of Nations andInternational Labour Organization. Following theBalfour Declaration of 1926, King appointedVincent Massey as the first Canadianminister plenipotentiary in Washington (1926), raised the office in Paris to legation status underPhilippe Roy (1928), and opened a legation in Tokyo withHerbert Marler as envoy (1929). Canada finally achieved legislative independence with the enactment of theStatute of Westminster in 1931, although British diplomatic missions continued to represent Canada in most countries throughout the 1930s.[citation needed]
Canada was pulled into theGreat Depression in 1929 by the economic recession in the U.S.[28] There was a tariff war with Washington and foreign trade dried up[29] while unemployment soared.[30] The economy shrank by 40% in terms of gross domestic product. Canadians were all the more preoccupied with domestic economic problems. With little dissent Canada chose to remain neutral throughout the 1930s.Japan's invasion of Manchuria raised little concern in Canada, nor didHitler's rise to power in 1933 orItaly's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.[31]
The government declared its neutrality on the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War in 1936 whereFrancisco Franco lead a military uprising, supported with military hardware and tens of thousands of troops byNazi Germany andFascist Italy against theSecond Spanish Republic. The insurgents won the civil war in 1939. TheCommunist Party of Canada encouraged young men to volunteer to fight for the Spanish Republic in theInternational Brigades. They were not deterred by the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1937, outlawing participation by Canadians in foreign wars. Eventually, 1,546 Canadians participated, mainly in theMackenzie-Papineau Battalion (also called "Mac-Paps") of whom 721 were killed. Except for France, no other country gave as great a proportion of its population as volunteers in Spain than Canada.[32]
Despite its expressed neutrality, in 1936, Canada began a modest program of rearmament and in 1937, King let Britain know that Canada would support it in case of a war in Europe. He visited Germany in June 1937 and met withAdolf Hitler. Like many other political leaders of the time, King was seduced by Hitler's charm and rehearsed simplicity. He supported the policy of "appeasement" of Germany. King and other leaders remained quiet whenHitler annexed Austria in 1938 andBohemia in 1939.[33]
With the rise ofanti-Semitism in Germany and the growing trickle of refugees arriving in the country, Canada began to actively restrict Jewish immigration by 1938.Frederick Charles Blair, the country's top immigration official, raised the amount of money immigrants had to possess to come to Canada from $5,000 to $15,000. King himself shared theanti-Semitism of many Canadians; in his diary he wrote: "We must seek to keep this part of the continent free from unrest and from too great an intermixture of foreign strains of blood."[34]
"Through government inaction and Blair's bureaucraticanti-Semitism, Canada emerged from the war with one of the worst records ofJewish refugee resettlement in the world. Between 1933 and 1939, Canada accepted only 4,000 of the 800,000 Jews who had escaped fromNazi-controlled Europe."[34]
In 1939, the King government began to abandon its support of appeasement and publicly warned that it would support Britain in the event of a war.[35] After the outbreak ofWorld War II in September 1939, Canada rapidly expanded its army, navy and air forces.[36]
Ugly rumours of Japanese spies and saboteurs, combined with long-standing hostility towardJapanese Canadians, led to theinternment in inland camps of 21,000 Japanese.[37]
To re-arm Canada, King built theRoyal Canadian Air Force as a viable military power, while at the same time keeping it separate from Britain'sRoyal Air Force. He was instrumental in obtaining theBritish Commonwealth Air Training Plan Agreement, which was signed in Ottawa in December 1939, binding Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia to a program that eventually trained half the airmen from those four nations in the Second World War.[38][39]
King linked Canada more and more closely to the United States, signingan agreement with Roosevelt atOgdensburg, New York, in August 1940 that provided for the close cooperation of Canadian and American forces, despite the fact that the U.S. remained officially neutral until the bombing ofPearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During the war the Americans took virtual control of theYukon in building theAlaska Highway, and major airbases inNewfoundland, at that time under British governance.[40]
In designing the strategy for victory in World War Two, Canada was largely ignored by British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt. Nevertheless, Canada did play an important role in mobilizing and training troops and munitions, and in supplying food. to Britain.[41][42] and money[43]
Its military roles included thetraining airmen for the Commonwealth, guarding the western half of theNorth Atlantic Ocean against GermanU-boats,[44] and providing combat troops for the invasions of Italy, France and Germany in 1943–45.
Canada proved highly successful in mobilizing its economy for war, with impressive results in industrial and agricultural output. The depression ended, prosperity returned, and Canada's economy expanded significantly.[45]
During the war, Canada rapidly expanded its diplomatic missions abroad. While Canada hosted two major Allied conferences in Quebec in 1943 and 1944, neither King nor his senior diplomats, generals and admirals were invited to take part in any of the discussions.[46]
TheCanadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA) has long been the intellectual centre of foreign policy thinking. Its current name is the "Canadian International Council". Under businessman Edgar Tarr, 1931 to 1950, the CIIA went beyond the original neutral and apolitical research role. Instead it championed Canadian national autonomy and sought to enlarge the nation's international role, while challengingBritish imperialism. Numerous diplomats attended its conferences and supported its new mission. Canada's foreign policy moved away fromclassical imperialism and toward the modern approach by the United States. CIIA leaders and Canadian officials worked to encouraged nationalist forces inIndia,China, andSoutheast Asia that sought to reject colonial rule and Western dominance.[47]
According to Hector Mackenzie, the myth of a glorious postwar era in Canada's international relations is common in memoirs and biographies of Canadian diplomats, journalism and popular commentary. It sometimes appears in scholarly studies. This story is used as evidence of Canada's exceptionalism, its special world mission and its supposed deeply feltinternationalism. It is easy to take this myth as a standard against which recent history is judged. Mackenzie argues the myth is deeply mistaken especially regarding Canadian motives and achievements in world affairs during 1939 to 1957.[48] Diplomats reminiscing about the postwar era stress the outsized role ofLester B. Pearson; they fondly call the 1940s and 1950s a "golden era" of Canadian foreign policy. It is matched against the isolationism of the 1930s, which James Eayrs called a low, dishonest decade."[49] However, the Golden Era tag has been challenged as a romantic exaggeration. Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, working closely with his Foreign MinisterLouis St. Laurent, handled foreign relations 1945–48 in cautious fashion. Canada lent and donated over $2 billion to Britain to help it rebuild (by purchasing Canadian exports). It was elected to theUN Security Council. It helped design NATO. However, Mackenzie King rejected free trade with the United States,[50] and decided not to play a role in theBerlin airlift.[48] Canada had been actively involved in the League of Nations, primarily because it could act separately from Britain. It played amodest role in the postwar formation of the United Nations, as well as theInternational Monetary Fund. It played a somewhat larger role in 1947 in designing theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.[51] Ties with Great Britain gradually weakened, especially in 1956 when Canada refused to support theBritish and French invasion of Egypt in order to seize theSuez Canal. LiberalLester B. Pearson as External Affairs Minister (foreign minister) won theNobel Peace Prize for organizing theUnited Nations Emergency Force in 1956 to resolve theSuez Canal Crisis.[52]
From 1939 to 1968, foreign policy was based on close relationships with the United States, especially in trade and defence policy, with Canada an active member ofNATO as well as a bilateral partner with the United States in forming a northern defence againstSoviet Air Forcestrategic bombers. In 1950–53, Canada sent troops to theKorean War in defence ofSouth Korea.[53]
For Lester Pearson, cultural differences, Francophone versus Anglophone, could perhaps be narrowed by involvement in world affairs. Canadians could gain a broader, more cosmopolitan, more liberal outlook. A sense of national identity, built on the middle size nation thesis, was possible. Perhaps international commitment would produce a sense of purpose and thereby unite Canadians.[54]
There were voices on both left and right that warned against being too close to the United States. Few Canadians listened before 1957. Instead, there was wide consensus on Canadian foreign and defence policies 1948 to 1957. Bothwell, Drummond and English state:
However the consensus did not last. By 1957 the Suez crisis alienated Canada from both Britain and France; politicians distrusted American leadership, businessmen questioned American financial investments; and intellectuals ridiculed the values ofAmerican television andHollywood offerings that all Canadians watched. "Public support for Canada's foreign policy big came unstuck. Foreign-policy, from being a winning issue for the Liberals, was fast becoming a losing one."[55]
The general pattern in the 20th century, was for the Liberal party, especially when it controlled the government under Laurier (1896–1911) and Mackenzie King (1921–1930, 1935–1948), to favour closer ties with the United States, often at the expense of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. The Conservative party, on the other hand, with its voting base in the British element, took the opposite position. Thus the Conservatives defeated the 1911 reciprocity treaty with the United States, and took the lead in supporting Britain in the First World War, wild working feverishly to suppress anti-British sentiment in Québec and the Prairie provinces. HoweverJohn Diefenbaker, the conservative Prime Minister 1957–1963, was shocked to discover that the British were serious about entry into theCommon Market. The Conservatives saw this as a betrayal of the Commonwealth ideal, and let the opposition to London's plans. French PresidentCharles de Gaulle vetoed London's application, but itfinally joined in 1975, with the result of weakening ties to Canada and the Commonwealth.[56][57]
The success of the Suez peacekeeping mission led Canadians to embrace peacekeeping as a suitable role for a middle-sized country, looking for a role, and having high regards for the United Nations. Canada's role in the development ofpeacekeeping during the late 20th century led to the reputation as a prominent player in world affairs. Canada's commitment to multilateralism has been closely related topeacekeeping efforts. CanadianNobel Peace Prize laureateLester B. Pearson was the father of modernUnited Nations Peacekeeping.[58][59] Prior to Canada's role in theSuez Canal Crisis, Canada was viewed by many as insignificant in issues of the world's traditional powers. Canada's successful role in the conflict gave Canada credibility and established it as a nation fighting for the common good of all the world's nations and not just their allies.[60]
Canada sent a peacekeeping force toCyprus in 1964, when two NATO members,Greece andTurkey, were at swords' point overethnic violence betweenGreeks andTurks in thehistoric British colony. The Canadians left in 1993 after 28 were killed and many wounded in the operation. Peacekeeping help was needed in theBelgian Congo in 1960–64, after Belgium pulled out. There were numerous other small interventions. Canada took a central role in theInternational Control Commission (ICC), which tried to broker peace in theVietnam War in the 1960s.[61]
In 1993 violent misbehavior by Canadian peacekeepingforces in Somalia shocked the nation.[62][63]
Since 1995, Canadian direct participation in United Nations peacekeeping efforts has greatly declined.[64] That number decreased largely because Canada began to direct its participation to UN-sanctioned military operations throughNATO, rather than through the UN.[65] In July 2006, for instance, Canada ranked 51st on the list of UN peacekeepers, contributing 130 peacekeepers out of a total UN deployment of over 70,000;[66] whereas in November 1990 Canada had 1,002 troops out of a total UN deployment of 10,304.[67]
US PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower took pains to foster good relations with Progressive ConservativeJohn Diefenbaker (1957–1963) . That led to approval of plans to join together inNORAD, an integrated air defence system, in mid-1957. Relations with PresidentJohn F. Kennedy were much less cordial. Diefenbaker opposedapartheid in theSouth Africa and helped force it out of theCommonwealth of Nations. Hisindecision on whether to accept Bomarc nuclear missiles from the United States led to his government's downfall.[68]
TheVietnam War (1964–1975) was very unpopular in Canada, which provided only minimal diplomatic support and no military participation. LiberalLester B. Pearson as Prime Minister (1963–1968) avoided any involvement in Vietnam.[69] Foreign affairs was not high on his agenda, as he concentrated on complex internal political problems.[70]
Under Liberal Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau (1968–1979 and 1980–1984) foreign policy was much less important than internal unity. There were multiple new approaches, some of which involved standing apart from the United States. Trudeau recognized thePeople's Republic of China shortly before the United States did,[71] improved relationships with the Soviet Union, and cut back on contributions to NATO. While not cutting back on trade with the United States, he did emphasize improved trade with Europe and Asia. By his third year in office, however, Trudeau launched a new initiative, emphasizing Canada's role as a middle power with the ability to engage in active peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations.[72] Foreign aid was expanded, especially to the non-white Commonwealth. Canada joined most of NATO in imposing sanctions on theSoviet Union for itsinvasion of Afghanistan in 1979–80.[73] PresidentRonald Reagan took office in Washington in 1981, and relationships cooled.[74] However, whenIraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Canada joined most of NATO and sending troops to thePersian Gulf war.[75]Although Canada remained part of NATO, a strong military presence was considered unnecessary by 1964, and funding was diverted into peacekeeping missions. Only 20,000 soldiers were left. In 2006,Andrew Richter called this, "Forty years of neglect, indifference, and apathy."[76]
Québec started operating its own foreign policy in the 1960s, so that in key countries Canada had two separate missions with diverging priorities.[77]
TheConservative PartyGovernment of Canada led byPrime MinisterStephen Harper has been characterized as a great break from the previous 70 years of post-war Canadian diplomacy. Indeed, Harper moved away from the multilateral and internationalist policies of theLiberal Party, and reduced Canada's emphasis on theUnited Nations,peacekeeping, conflict resolution, andmultilateralism. Harper's foreign policy has been described as "ideological", incoherent" and "diaspora-driven".[78][79]
Harper sought to strengthen cooperation with theUnited States, particularly in theirWar on terror. As part of this policy, his government continued and expanded Canada's participation in the US-ledWar in Afghanistan.[80] Harper also led Canada in theLibyan civil war and theSyrian civil war.[81] In parallel, Harper showed relentless support forIsrael throughout his whole premiership.[82]
.jpg)
Trudeau enjoyed good relations with the like-mindedUnited States PresidentBarack Obama, despite Trudeau's support for theKeystone Pipeline which was rejected by theDemocratic President.[83] Trudeau's first foreign policy challenges included respecting his campaign promise to withdraw Canadian air support from theSyrian civil war[84] and to welcome 25,000Syrian war refugees.[85]
.jpg)
Trudeau had a much frostier relationship with Obama's successor,Donald Trump. The Trump administration forced the renegotiation ofNAFTA to create theCUSMA (known as USMCA in the US), in which Canada made significant concessions in allowing increased imports of American milk, weakening Canada's dairysupply management system.[86][87] Trump also implementedtariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, to which Trudeau retaliated by imposing tariffs on American steel, aluminum and a variety of other American products.[88] At the2018 G7 summit, Trump called Trudeau "very dishonest and weak" in response to comments that Trudeau had made in a press conference, regarding Trump's tariffs. Trudeau again drew Trump's ire at the2019 NATO summit when he was seen on video gossiping with his British and Dutch counterparts,Boris Johnson andMark Rutte, as well as French presidentEmmanuel Macron, about a press conference that Trump had held earlier that day. Trump responded by calling Trudeau "two-faced" when asked by a reporter about the incident.[89]
AfterJoe Biden was elected to succeed Trump in 2020, Trudeau was the first foreign leader to speak with Biden directly aspresident-elect.[90] Trudeau was also the first leader to speak with Biden once he assumed office, and Biden's first formal bilateral meeting was with Trudeau, though it was held virtually due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[91]
Canada's relationship with China has deteriorated under Trudeau's leadership, chiefly as a result of theMeng Wanzhou affair. SinceWanzhou's arrest at theVancouver airport in December 2018, two Canadians (Michael Spavor andMichael Kovrig) have been held in custody in China. Both countries have requested the release of their nationals, which they see aspolitical prisoners. Trudeau claims he does not have the authority to free Wanzhou, as his policy is to respect Canada'sextradition treaty with the United States.[92][93]
In a similar fashion,Canada's relationship with Saudi Arabia has deteriorated during Trudeau's premiership, ashuman rights groups called on Trudeau to stop selling military equipment to that country under a deal struck by his predecessor. In 2018,Saudi Arabia recalled its Canadian ambassador and froze trade with the country after Canada had called on the Saudis to release opposition bloggerRaif Badawi. However, in 2019, Canada doubled its weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, despite a "moratorium on export permits following thekilling of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and mounting civilian deaths from theSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen."[94]
India's intelligence agencies,Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and theIndian Intelligence Bureau, have been accused of trying to "covertly influence" Canadian politicians into supporting the Indian interests.[95][96] According to theNorman Paterson School of International Affairs expert, "To my mind, this is one of the first public examples of evidence of clandestine foreign influence targeted at Canadian politicians."[97]
In 2020, Canada lost itsbid to join the United Nations Security Council. This was the second time Canada failed in an attempt to join the Security Council, the first time being in2009 under Trudeau's predecessorStephen Harper.[98]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Particularly after the fall of France in June 1940, Canadian food exports provided an essential lifeline to Britain.
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| History |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provinces and territories |
| ||||
| Geography |
| ||||
| Government |
| ||||
| Economy | |||||
| Demographics |
| ||||
| Society | |||||
| Culture |
| ||||
| Contents | |||||
| Research | |||||
| Search | |||||
 Links related to Foreign relations of Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg)
