Canada and International Development

Review articles Canada and International Development DAYID R. MORRISON In order to assess Canada's foreign policy in matters of international development, almost any informed observer would now agree with what was once the view of a radical minority - that it is not enough to examine policy in the sphere of aid alone. The federal government's own aid agency, the Canadian International Development Corporation (CIDA), is on record as acknowledging that the simple schemes of the 1960s aimed at closing the gap between rich and poor through transfers of aid were drastically insufficient and, in many respects, counter-productive. I The OPEC challenge of 1973 created shock waves throughout the world economy, and, in the short-run, dislocations were experienced most severely in non-oil producing developing countries. However, it served as a catalyst for firmly placing on the international agenda Third World demands for a New International Economic Order (NIEO). Former Prime Minister Trudeau spoke of the implications for western governments in a major speech delivered in England in 1975: The demands of developing countries have been carefully formulated and powerfully articulated. They reflect a sense of frustration and anger. Those countries seek no piecemeal adjustments but a comprehensive restructuring of all the components - fiscal, monetary, trade, transport and investment. The response of the industrialized countries can be no less well-prepared and no less comprehensive in scope.2 Most of the authors of recent books on Canada's relations with the Third World would agree that a comprehensive and integrated approach is needed, and evaluate the actual Canadian government response accordingly. This essay first reviews an extensive selection of these books. Then, following a brief glance at the nature of Canada's economic involvement in the developing world, it looks specifically at how some of the authors assess government policy and performance on developmental issues. It concludes with some speculative comments on the prospects for policy change, and raises in that context the question of what we may expect of the new Prime Minister and his colleagues.* *This article was written prior to the fall of the Clark government in December 1979. Journal ofCanadian Studies Vol. 14, No. 4 (Hiver 1979-80 Winter) A survey of recent books No one has yet produced a really penetrating scholarly study that analyzes all aspects of Canada's relations with the Third World within a framework grounded in the theoretical literature on comparative development. In fact, if I were to make a recommendation to someone wanting to read a single book on the subject, my choice would be one that has come from the pen of a journalist, not an academic. Robert Chodos' The Caribbean Connection (James Lorimer & Co., 1977) focuses upon the developing area where Canada's external presence is most visible and strongly felt. Writing from a position informed (but by no means overwhelmed) by Marxist and radical literature on underdevelopment and dependency, Chodos is a skilled reporter who demonstrates abilities both to infuse life into the people and places he describes and to make his material speak effectively for itself. He takes readers through a survey of West Indian culture and politics, the contradictions of colonial and postcolonial dependency, and the "double-edged" penetration of Canadian private capital, trade, tourism, development assistance and missionary activity. He then returns to Canada to examine the equally "doubleedged '' experience here of immigrants from the Caribbean . Advocacy is left to the final chapter: At their best Canadians have wanted their country's relationship to the West Indies to be that of a benefactor and big brother. They have never been able to conceive of the possibility that Canada and the West Indies could be allies and share common interests. But if the Canada-West Indies relationship is not to be marked by increasing hostility that is precisely the direction in which it will have to develop. 3 The only other recent full-length study of Canadian involvement in a particular area of the Third World is J.C.M. Ogelsby's Gringosfrom the Far North (Macmillan, 1976), which explores the evolution of Canada's diplomatic, commercial and religious ties with the republics of Latin America. A meticulous historian, Ogelsby has amassed a...