North Atlantic World: Canada and the Wartime Plans for the Post-War Global Economy, 1941–1947

Abstract

There were numerous bilateral financial and commercial measures in the 1940s within the North Atlantic Triangle of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, in wartime and thereafter.1However, the focus of this article is on Canada’s interest in the multilateral economic proposals for the post-war world. As the following account demonstrates, that option for Canadian policymakers was likewise defined and framed within the North Atlantic Triangle. As for the long-standing but elusive goal of diversification of markets for Canadian exports, the initial benefits to Canada of the multilateral alternative tended to reinforce rather than contradict the trend – evident in Canada’s bilateral deals – for its fortunes to be identified with its commerce with its North Atlantic partners. In other words, Canada’s economic world was fundamentally a North Atlantic world, and its multilateral plans and actions took that reality into account.