Canada and the United Nations General Assembly (1994–2015): continuity and change under the Liberals and Conservatives

Abstract

How important are political parties in shaping Canadian foreign policy? Do Liberals and Conservatives do foreign policy differently? Academic analysis of Canadian foreign policy has not focused much on these questions even while conventional wisdom insists that party differences matter a great deal. This paper examines Canada’s voting record at the United Nations General Assembly on selected resolutions from 1994 to 2015 to assess the impact of political parties on Canadian foreign policy. It finds that Canada’s record was marked by a high degree of continuity on all policy issues except one: The Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Overall, the paper concludes that while political parties do not differ much on foreign policy, the differences that do exist are significant enough to warrant greater scholarly attention.