Canadian Foreign Policy

8 Pages 1888 Words

Does Canada have an Independent Foreign Policy?

Canada, a Nation Ahead of it’s Time?

The question regarding “Does Canada have an independent foreign policy?” must first be deconstructed before it can be answered. Firstly, the nation of ‘Canada’ must be defined. Canada is the north most nation of North America, formerly a colony of both Britain and France contributing to multilingual culture, with a wide array of environmental landscapes, on either side of the nation are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The country is comprised of 10 provinces and 3 territories and has a population of approximately 31,499,560 (Statistics Canada). Secondly the word ‘Independent’ must be defined, Webster’s 10th Collegiate Dictionary defines it as: Not governed by a foreign power; self-governing. This definition must be expanded to say that independent includes a free will of the government to conduct foreign affairs as they feel is in the best interests of the people who reside in the country. Finally and most importantly ‘Foreign policy must be defined. Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary defines 'foreign policy' as "the policy of a sovereign state in its interaction with other sovereign states." Sovereign means having absolute power within a limited scope: the borders of a country. Foreign policy can further be expressed as the diplomatic strings which hold this world together. The actions of one state affect the people in other states. The best example of the actions of states being affected by other nation’s policy is with regards to war. When a country is at war, even if it is civil war it affects other states because of things like refugees fleeing a war torn homeland in hope for a peaceful settlement. It also affects countries with operations inside the war torn country. This example illustrates that the actions of one states policy affects others. These explanations of the key terms in the question regarding wh...