ABSTRACT
Battered by populism, protectionism, and nationalism – personified by figures such as American President Donald Trump and exemplified by political movements like Brexit – the multilateral institutions and mechanisms that Canada had supported for over half a century seemed increasingly shaky. Part assertion, part elegy, Champagne’s comments make clear Canadian foreign policy-makers’ sense of a fading international order and the challenges to a relatively stable system that has benefitted Canada since 1945. Support for more open markets and multilateral institutions – the basis of the liberal international order — were the hallmarks of post-1945 Canadian foreign policy. Canadian-American relations were a flashpoint in the Trudeau era and to some extent foreshadowed more recent developments. Like all middle Powers entering the third decade of the twenty-first century, Canada is confronting an increasingly difficult international situation in which long-standing diplomatic axioms underpinning its foreign policy have either shifted or disappeared completely.
