Canadian Foreign Policy in the Trudeau Era : A Reinterpretation of Pirouette by Granatstein and Bothwell

SAKURADA Daizo

This paper examines critically the main argument proposed by a study on the Canadian foreign policy during the Trudeau era (1968- 84) . J. L. Granatstein and Robert Bothweli proclaimed in their co-authored book entitled Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy that Trudeau showed only a "sporadic" interest in foreign policy and failed to change the fundamentals of Canadian Foreign policy by the end of his tenure. Though the flow of events described in Pirouette appears accurate for the most part, as a devil's advocate, I take issue with the authors' conclusions and suggest some different interpretations of Trudeau's external actions. Some criticisms are derived from the existing literature by the students of Canadian foreign policy. These include the following views. Granatstein and Bothwell did not compare the Trudeau era to his successor, and they underestimated his ideological orientation. Trudeau's nationalism and its manifestation in the form of some policies must be treated as substantially different from Brian Mulroney's continentalist thrusts. A more rigourous conceptual framework is required to equate Trudeau's foreign policy achievements with those of Pearson, his predecessor. Moreover, Pirouettte can be categorized into the "Internationalist Perspective" based on the theoretical typology offered by Michael Hawes, but its historical approach of the .interpretation of the Trudeau era is not theoretical enough to provide an analytical breakthrough in the study of Canadian foreign policy and international relations.

Canadian Foreign Policy in the Trudeau Era : A Reinterpretation of Pirouette by Granatstein and Bothwell

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