Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade - Nomenclature

Nomenclature

The change of terminology from "External Affairs" to "Foreign Affairs" recognized, albeit belatedly, a shift that had occurred many years before. At the time that the External Affairs portfolio was created in 1905, Canada was a self-governing dominion in the British Empire and did not have an independent foreign policy. Most foreign diplomacy was conducted with other parts of the British Empire which were not considered "foreign" lands. The United Kingdom and other colonial powers still routinely divided their conduct of overseas policy into foreign affairs (e.g. the UK's Foreign Office) and domestic or "colonial affairs" (the Colonial Office or Dominion Office, which were later reorganized and combined into one department, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office). Diplomacy outside the Empire (e.g. between Canada and its non-Empire neighbours, the United States, Russia, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenland) were conducted by the foreign office of the United Kingdom.

The term "External Affairs" avoided the question of whether a colony or Dominion, self-governing and hence sovereign in some respects but sharing the Head of State with other countries, could by definition have foreign affairs. Implicitly, since the Department was responsible for affairs with both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries, all "external" relations were of a type, even when the Head of State was shared with other nations.