Much ado about very little: Canada’s national interests in history and practice

Ever since Canada failed to be elected to the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member in June 2020, there have been calls for Ottawa to realign Canadian foreign policy with the national interest. It is hardly the first time that such a plea has been made: critics advocated similarly in the 1870s, the 1930s, the 1960s, and the 2000s. Yet, in each case, they recommended a different policy solution. Having reviewed these episodes, this essay concludes that the real debate in Canadian foreign policy has never been about the national interest, per se. To borrow from the language of strategy, Ottawa’s critics have merely privileged different “ways” of achieving the same “ends,” while everyone yearns for the “means” to do more.