The Development of Canada's Foreign Economic Policy in the 1960s: The Case of the European Union

Abstract

>If we do not wish to weaken the Western coalition [ranged against the USSR],= the leader of Her Majesty=s Official Opposition, Lester Pearson, began in his reply to the Speech from the Throne on 22 January 1962, >and if, in Canada, we do not wish either to face the United States alone or become too economically dependent on it, then surely the best policy for us is to seek economic interdependence within the North Atlantic Community through freer trade.= Pearson=s insight was probably true, and the notion of a North Atlantic Community, uniting North America and Western Europe, remained an attractive proposition for the generation of Canadians who had matured during the Great Depression. However, the Liberal leader=s intervention in the debate begs the question: Was he serious or merely electioneering, sensing the Conservative government=s vulnerability as its mandate slowly ran out? Most likely, Pearson=s gambit was a combination of the two. But it remained the case that neither the Liberals before 10 June 1957 and again after 8 April 1963, nor the Conservatives in the years between, had been able to nudge Canada=s trade figures with Western Europe any higher. Indeed, by the 1960s, Canada=s foreign economic policy with respect to Europe was replete with unrequited expectation. The dream of millions of bushels of wheat and other agricultural products, tons of steel,