Foreign policy advice in the Prime Minister’s Office: Mackenzie King to Brian Mulroney

The Department of External Affairs (DEA) has always been anomalous—more closely associated with the prime minister than any other department, yet also more independent from cabinet in its necessarily far-flung structure than any other department. The unique position of the DEA has meant that its influence has been closely tied to changes in the structure of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). This article examines the ways that the advisory capacity of the DEA has gradually been eroded, while the foreign policy advice from the PMO has concomitantly increased, in the period between the 1930s and the 1990s.

So Near and Yet So Far: The 1995 Quebec Referendum in Perspective

Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney failed to reconcile Quebec with the rest of Canada. The Parti Québécois (PQ) government under Jacques Parizeau called a referendum in October 1995 to decide if the province would secede. While the federal government under Jean Chrétien barely intervened, the fiery rhetoric of Lucien Bouchard brought the separatists close to victory. Quebecers voted to stay in Canada by only 1 per cent. A massive late rally of non-Quebec Canadians pleading with Quebecers to remain probably tipped the balance. Bouchard, who succeeded Parizeau, never felt confident of winning another referendum. Later the PQ lost ground as separatism ceased to appeal. In the EU referendum of 2016 the British government failed to learn from Canada’s experience. The Remain side campaigned negatively rather than positively, and did not mobilize its supporters as well as the Leave camp did. Canadian comparisons also remain relevant for Scotland.

Les conservateurs canadiens, la question d’Israël et l’antisémitisme

Depuis 2006, le gouvernement conservateur a donné à de multiples reprises son appui à l’État d’Israël. Ce soutien suscite de nombreuses controverses, parce qu’il est interprété comme une rupture par rapport aux positions traditionnelles du Canada face au conflit israélo-palestinien. Dans ce texte, nous examinons les positions conservatrices de Joe Clark et de Brian Mulroney pour évaluer en quoi l’approche actuelle de Stephen Harper s’en distingue ou non. Le texte revient en terminant sur les explications avancées pour comprendre cet appui à Israël et nous montrons que, s’il y a rupture, il existe aussi certaines continuités entre Stephen Harper et les autres conservateurs.

Commerce et Constitution : une analyse de la stratégie de marchandage dans l'Accord canado-américain de libre-échange

This paper attempts to explain the controversial, and politically risky, Canada-us Free Trade Agreement (CUFTÀ) as a by-product of political entrepreneurship in pursuit of electoral realignment. Upon becoming Prime Minister of Canada in 1984, Brian Mulroney harbored one overriding ambition : to engineer electoral realignment whereby his Conservative Party would supplant the Liberals as the dominant federal party in Quebec, and by extension, in Canada. Mulroney sought realignment by satisfying Quebec's fundamental institutional demands, which took the form of the Meech Lake constitutional Accord. This objective necessitated the construction of a coalition that married the trade and constitutional issues. Mulroney's brokerage skills ensured that CUFTA progressed in tandem with Meech Lake as a means to realizing his first-order objectives.