It is always nice to read a review by David Crane. You can count on his conscientiously sharing with the reader what a book is about and providing a fair assessment of its contribution. But even David sometimes gets it wrong, as he did in the case of my book, From Pride to Influence: Towards a New Canadian Foreign Policy. I am sure he read the book, but he did so wearing the blinders that are standard issue at the Toronto Star when it comes to Canada’s relations with the United States. The book does not counsel that in its foreign policy the government of Canada concentrate all of its resources on the U.S. to the detriment of the rest of the world. Rather, it argues that unless Canada grounds its foreign policy in a productive and mutually respectful relationship with the U.S., it is unlikely to gain much traction in pursuing issues with the rest of the world.
The book criticizes the foreign policy of the Chrétien-Martin years because it failed to understand this critical dimension of where Canadian interests lie. In looking forward, the book recalls the strengths of the Pearson and Mulroney years. During both those eras, Canada reached out effectively to other parts of the world in large part because the relationship with the U.S. was functioning as it should. That does not mean there were no problems. Any intense relationship is likely to have its ups and downs. But the basic strength of the relationship made it possible to solve difficult problems to the mutual satisfaction of both countries. As a result, other countries took Canada more seriously and Canadians were able to exercise more influence on issues that were important to them.
It is obvious that in the decades to come countries such as China, India and Brazil are likely to loom larger than they did in the past, and it behooves Canada to make sure that we will have the capacity to deal with them effectively. But they will not be able to replace the U.S. as the bedrock upon which Canada must pursue its security and prosperity interests. Nor does their rise mean a U.S. in decline. In any event, it is only with the U.S. that we will continue to have a relationship that touches the full range of Canadian interests and concerns. History, demography and geography all point in that direction. It would be irresponsible for any Canadian government to think otherwise.
Michael Hart
Ottawa, Ontario
