Canadian Foreign Policy at the First Half of the Twentieth Century: From Dominion to Commonwealth

Abstract

This article discusses the way of Canada from the dominion to Commonwealth at the first half of the XX century. A special attention is paid to the imperial idea, the attainment of Canadian foreign policy sovereignty. The author comes to the conclusion that the trend of Canadas commitment to the imperial idea, was lasting and defined the nature of Canadas foreign policy in the first half of the XX century This idea was based also on the understanding of the traditional two-party system and a common Anglo-Saxon political culture. On the contrary, in the interwar period, 1919-1939, and after the Second world war, Canada gained sovereignty in foreign policy, primarily due to the Statute of Westminster 1931, and the Imperial Charter in 1949 which recorded the formation of the Commonwealth of Nations instead of the British Colonial Empire. After coming to power of the Сonservative government of B. Mulroney in 1984, Canada has strengthened its sovereignty and headed for Continentalism, i.e. the strengthening of Canadian-American trade relations, which were implemented in the agreements FTA with the US, NAFTA with USA and Mexico.

Keywords

• foreign policy
• the imperial idea
• the statute of westminster
• imperial charter
• the sovereignty
• political compromise
• continentalism