Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade - Foreign Relations

Foreign Relations

Canada's management of its own foreign relations evolved over time, with key milestones including World War I (at the conclusion of which Canada was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and a member of the League of Nations), the Balfour Declaration, increased direct conduct of bilateral matters with the United States (where Canada had its own representatives since at least 1927), and finally, the Statute of Westminster and the Second World War. In terms of Canada's commercial relations, the first Trade Commissioner, John Short Larke, was named following a successful trade delegation to Australia led by Canada's first Minister of Trade and Commerce, Mackenzie Bowell.

The Statute of Westminster clarified that Canada (and certain other colonies such as Australia and New Zealand) were primarily responsible for, among other things, the conduct of their own foreign affairs. After World War II, Canada was a founding member of the United Nations and participant in its own right in post-war settlement talks and other international fora, and in most respects the conduct of foreign affairs was no longer "colonial".

Over the years after World War II, a number of other historical traditions were slowly abolished or brought into accordance with reality, such as the practice of Canadian Ambassadors presenting diplomatic credentials signed by the Queen of Canada (including, on occasion, credentials written in French as an official language of Canada); Canadian Ambassadors now present credentials signed by the Governor General of Canada. Other traditions remain, such as the exchange of High Commissioners instead of Ambassadors between Commonwealth countries (and High Commissioners present credentials from the Head of Government, as the Head of State was historically "shared", and would not accredit a representative to one's self). Nonetheless, by the time the change in terminology was effected in 1993, Canada's foreign affairs had been conducted separately from the United Kingdom in most significant respects for the entire post-war period, or over sixty years since the Statute of Westminster.

This process was paralleled in other areas over this period, including the establishment of Canada's own Supreme Court as the court of last resort, the so-called Patriation of the Constitution, and Canadian citizenship (Canadians had been British subjects, and no citizenship per se existed until 1947).

During the Harper government, Canada's worldwide influence suffered because of environmental concerns and a focus on trade-promotion over other foreign relations, although still remaining high as compared to its peers. For the first time Canada also lost an election to a seat on the Security Council.

In September 2012, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office signed a Memorandum of Understanding on diplomatic cooperation, which promotes the co-location of embassies, the joint provision of consular services, and common crisis response. The project has been criticised by leading Canadian foreign affairs scholars for undermining Ottawa's foreign policy independence.