Toward an Understanding of Canada’s International Identity

ABSTRACT

This article examines the construction of Canada’s postwar international identity and how that identity continues to influence Canadian foreign policy, especially with the United States. Furthermore, the article illustrates how changes in Canadian policy necessitated by the Trump Administration may impact Canada’s international identity in the future. The article argues Canadian policy makers have consistently constructed an international identity in opposition to the United States and continue to use the US as a reflective tool in shaping their own policy. The first part of the article briefly examines the concept of state identity outlining both type and role variants and their relevance to foreign policy and this is followed in the second part by a discussion of Canada’s postwar international identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Canada-US relations
• Canadian foreign policy
• international identity
• internationalism
• Canadian identity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Tom Keating, Kim Nossal and the anonymous reviewers for their incisive and helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Gecelovsky

Paul Gecelovsky has held teaching positions at Western University, the University of Lethbridge and the University of Windsor. He was the inaugural Royal Bank Financial Group Fellow in Political Economy in the departments of economics and political science at Western University.

Robert W. Murray

Robert W. Murray is the President and CEO at Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta, Canada. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Canadian International Council and a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute.