US-Canada Relations in the 1950s - 1980s: Consensus or Disagreement?

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to finalize the impact of the relationship between the USA and Canada on the Canadian foreign policy in 1957-1984. The author focuses the reader’s attention on analysis of trends in the relations between USA and Canada, as well as the identification of the patterns of their further development. Based on the use of an appropriate historical sources and scientific literature, the article gives an idea of the characteristic features of the relationship between the USA and Canada during the premierships of John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau. When writing an article, the author uses a comparative historical method, as well as an interdisciplinary approach. The first allows us to compare the development of the relations between USA and Canada in 1957-1984. The latter shows the influence of the relationship between USA and Canada on the activities of political parties in Canada. The scientific contribution of the author of the article is that for the first time in Russian historiography, he considers not just the general directions of Canada’s foreign policy, but analyzes the key of them - the relationship between USA and Canada, its evolution and dynamics. The author comes to the conclusion that the periodization of the relationship between USA and Canada reflected the complexity of their development, and the anti-americanism of Diefenbaker and Trudeau had no deep foundation. Firstly, it was the result of Diefenbaker’s personal grievances against Kennedy. Secondly, Trudeau demonstrated that Canada’s foreign policy has an independent character. However, this did not mean his departure from the relationship between USA and Canada as a major.