Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy

D.M.L. Farr is Professor Emeritus of History at Carleton University in
Ottawa.

This is an important book in the literature on Canada’s foreign
relations. It is a record and an assessment of Pierre Trudeau’s 14
years as the chief architect of Canada’s external policies from 1968
to 1984. The authors, accomplished historians, have skillfully set
Canada’s diplomacy within the international context of the period.

The account begins with the review of Canada’s foreign policy carried
out by the new Trudeau administration in an effort to close the chapter
on what it judged the tired internationalism of Lester Pearson and Paul
Martin. It continues with the new government’s soul-searching over
nato and the presence of Canadian troops in Europe before moving on to
relations with individual countries and regions: the United States, the
European Community, Japan, the Soviet Union, and China. It treats
Turdeau’s enthusiasm for the Commonwealth and his willingness to use
it as a locus for the mediatory diplomacy he had criticised as an
over-used tactic of the Pearson administration. It throws new light on
De Gaulle’s deliberate attempt to destabilize Canada by encouraging
Quebec’s international aspirations. It deals with defence policy,
energy policy, the reorganization of the foreign service, and Canada’s
program of development assistance. One subject that is not examined
(surprisingly since the authors consider it a creditable Trudeau
initiative) is Canada’s long struggle for an equitable set of policies
governing the law of the sea.

The sources for the study are as exhaustive as could be wished for for
so recent a period. The Department of External Affairs opened many of
its files; the authors interviewed a long list of participants, both in
Canada and abroad, on the events described; they read the private papers
of ministers and officials; they drew on specialized studies touching on
the period. They write in a brisk (occasionally breezy) style and offer
lively pen portraits of the leading figures of these years.

In the end their judgment is balanced. Trudeau had no long-term
interest in foreign affairs but gave it sporadic attention, highlighted
by enthusiasms for certain subjects such as the Commonwealth, the reform
of North-South economic relations, and nuclear disarmament. He was
prepared to accept spheres of influence, whether they were American or
Russian. He often settled for the status quo, despite claiming that his
government was providing a new face for Canadian policy. He was not a
serious student of international relations but, as one of his officials
put it, “an adventurer in ideas.” Yet he desired a foreign policy
that helped individuals flourish under conditions of political and
economic freedom. This aim, the authors conclude, was a good one and
helps redeem his failures as an intermittent player on the international
scene.

The book is well documented and furnished with some choice cartoons of
the period. It is, unhappily, the final volume in the valuable Canada in
World Affairs series sponsored for so many years by the Canadian
Institute of International Affairs. If the series must come to an end,
it is fitting that it close with this spirited and informative volume.