“Whatever Happened to Canada?”

Recently an older acquaintance of mine, aware that I worked on Canadian issues, asked me, “What ever happened to Canada? We used to hear so much about what Canada did around the world and now we don’t hear anything.”

I don’t recall exactly how I responded to the question. There is no easy answer but, instead, a long set of explanations that point to the recent crisis in the direction of Canadian foreign policy. Though not necessarily the subject of media attention outside Canada, Canadian self-reflection on foreign policy, identity and Canada’s role in the world has been ongoing for many years, with an extended formal review culminating, in part, with last year’s International Policy Statement (henceforth the IPS) that the Martin government laboured so long to put out. Articles and publication, conferences and dialogue on foreign policy invariably devolved into a plaintive examination of national identity: that Canada could not possibly put forward its goals toward...