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

Abstract

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.