Relations with Canada

Report Outline
Canada's Election and the United States
Outstanding Problems in Trade Relations
Growth of American Investment in Canada
Mutual Interests in International Affairs
Special Focus

Canada's Election and the United States

American-Canadian Relations in the Campaign

Canada's parliamentary election of June 10 comes at a time when Canadian-American relations are under close scrutiny in both Canada and the United States. The ire aroused north of the border by the Norman affair has subsided, but Canada's traditional sensitivity to policies and actions of her powerful neighbor has been sharpened by other developments. The dominion's large and growing trade deficit with the United States, and increasing control of Canadian resources by American investors, have revived long-standing Canadian apprehensions of economic domination by this country.

Appeals to the nationalistic sentiments of Canadians are being heard in the current electoral campaign. The new leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, John Diefenbaker, has taxed the Liberal government of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent with showing undue deference to Washington in foreign affairs—a charge denied by Liberals. Relations with the United States are less an issue of partisan debate, however, than they are a matter of general concern. The concept of independence within interdependence is shared by Canadians of all parties, and there is little evidence that a Conservative government would pursue a substantially different goal in Canadian-American relations.

As a practical matter, there appears to be little chance that the Conservatives will succeed in breaking the Liberal Party's 22-year hold on the federal government at Ottawa. Liberals held 168 of the 265 seats in the House of Commons when it was dissolved Apr. 12, while Conservatives held only 50 seats. Conservatives are given some chance of picking up Liberal seats in Ontario, which with French-speaking Quebec has furnished the great bulk of Liberal support. But the wide popularity of the 75-year-old Prime Minister, coupled with the fact that Canada is prospering under a booming economy, are expected to give the Liberals a working if diminished majority in Parliament when the votes are counted.