Canada’s Foreign Policy

CANADA'S FOREIGN POLICY MA RVIN B. GELBER T HE development of a foreign policy for Canada has been occasioned by certain basic facts implicit in the structure of Canadian society. These facts are economic, social, and strategic. (1) Canadian economy has been built on the easy exploitation of vast natural resources, which in turn has provided the impetus for capital expenditures on industrialization and on competitive transportation networks. The staple commodities have been dependent on a highly fluctuating world market, and the loan expenditure for industrial development has been supplied from abroad. The burden of Canada's obligations is a rigid annual toll on the economy. The basic economic problem of the country, therefore, is to equate her variable export income with the rigidity of her capital cost structure. As a matter of policy, barring major economic upheavals , Canada's own programme of action can be ofonly secondary importance. (2) The next basic fact germane to Canada's foreign policy is the social complexion of our national community. Both the temper and structure of Canadian society are variations of Western European civilization. The history of this country is an aspect of the expansion of Europe overseas, and the political and social institutions which we have borrowed still look to their forbears for continued inspiration. Our society has been conceived in the image of its maker, and difficult would be the fate of both should that social equilibrium, which is the basis of their relationship , be destroyed. (3) The enviable strategic position of Canada results from the gifts both of gods and men. Geographically, Canada is remote from the present theatres of social upheaval. On the military side, she is shielded by the dominance of France and England in Western Europe, while the community of British and American interests in the Pacific gives strong assurance of safety in that region. Canadians are not vitally interested in the question of collective security because they feel that bounties both • political and geographic have endowed their national existence with a comfortable margin of reassurance. It is proposed to examine these three sets of facts in outline and see if the emergence of new dynamic forces throughout the 106 CANADA'S FOREIGN POLICY 107 world ·is not presenting a th.reat to the bases of Canadian life on which our foreign policy must rest. 1. Economic Fact From 1927 to 1930 Canada was the fifth trading nation in the world. During the depression years both the volume and gross value of her trade collapsed, but by 1934 and 1935 had sufficiently recovered to come back to sixth place on the basis of a depreciated currency. From 1923 to 1928 she stood second only to New Zealand in terms of per capita exports-a position which she regained in 1934. In the fiscal year 1929 Canada exported nearly $1,389 millions of merchandise. By 1933 the total had collapsed to less than 35 per cent of that figure. In 1930 Canada's foreign debt, both public and private, was greater in absolute figures than that of -any other cou~try except Germany, while on a per capita basis she was surpassed only by New Zealand.1 When it is remembered that Germany's foreign debt at that time was largely incurred in commercializing reparations , the boldness of our financial statesmanship stands out in more pronounced relief. Even barring any catastrophic developments in world affairs, the dependence of Canada on world conditions for the economic security of her citizens remains. The collapse of international markets during the depression was sufficient to put more than one out of every seven Canadians on reli~f at one time. This condition obtained for over a year, even during the early stages of economic revival. .Canada avoided any basic readjustments because of the beneficent arrival of Mr Roosevelt at the helm of the American Republic . (i) By raising the price that the Treasury of the United States was prepared to pay for gold, he induced a mining boom in Northern Ontario, which is still continuing. In the midst of our wilderness of capital expenditure was introduced an oasis of investment that absorbed considerable quantities of men and materials. (ii) By...