Canada,the Commonwealth and South Africa: National Foreign Policy-Making in a Multilateral Environment

I. See in particular: Don Munton and Timothy Shaw , 'Apartheid and Canadian Public Opinion', International Perspectives (September-October 1987); Harry Carter , 'Responding to Domestic Groups Regarding Canadian Policy Towards Southern Africa', in Don Munton (ed.), Groups and Governments in Canadian Foreign Policy (Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1982); Linda Freeman , 'Canadian Policy in Southern Africa', CUSO Journal (Summer 1987); Clarence Redekop , 'The Mulroney Government and South Africa: Constructive Disengagement', Behind the Headlines (Vol. 44, No. 2, December 1986).

Hereafter referred to as the Commonwealth.

For the purposes of this paper Carsten Holbraad's definition of a middle power will be used: 'states that are weaker than the great powers in the system but significantly stronger than the minor powers and small states with which they normally interact'. As vague as this definition may appear, it should be noted that most writers of Canadian foreign policy consider Canada a middle power. See Carsten Holbraad , Middle Powers in International Politics (London: Macmillan, 1984).

A.N. Papadopoulos , Multilateral Diplomacy Within the Commonwealth: A Decade of Expansion (London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishing, 1982), p. 4. There is debate regarding whether the Commonwealth is an international organisation. Its machinery, including a secretariat, and functional activities would suggest that it has some of the elementary structural requisites for an international organisation. See Papadopoulus, op.cit. ; also A.J.R. Groom and Paul Taylor (eds.), The Commonwealth in the 1980s: Challenges and Opportunities (London: Macmillan, 1984); Arnold Smith , Stitches in Time (London: Andre Deutsch, 1981); and Margaret Doxey , 'Strategies in Multilateral Diplomacy: The Commonwealth, South Africa and the NIEO', International Journal (No. 35, Spring 1980).

Government of Canada, Department of External Affairs , Foreign Policy for Canadians, 1970, p. 18.

Clarence Redekop , 'Commerce over Conscience: The Trudeau Government and South Africa: 1968-84', Journal of Canadian Studies (Vol. 19, No.4, Winter 1984- 85), p. 85.

Government of Canada, Department of External Affairs , Competitiveness and Security, May 1985, p. 18.

Government of Canada , House of commons Debates (21 March, 1985), p. 3270.

Glabe and Mail, 9 July 1985.

IBid, 2 September 1985.

Joe Clark , 'Canada and the Commonwealth', The Round Table (No. 296, October 1985). At the time of Lusaka, Clark was Prime Minister. Despite his stated enthusiasm for the Commonwealth, another writer has recorded Canada's attitude toward the Commonwealth during the deliberations over Rhodesia as 'contraryness towards anything to do with the Commonwealth Secretariat at the time: enthusiastic support at the political level; penny-pinching filibustering at all budgetary planning levels. The Canadians were identifiable by their calculators'. Stephen Chan , The Commonwealth Observer Group in Zimbabwe: A Personal Memoir (Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 1985).

For an early account of Canada's 'constructive internationalism' see John Holmes , The Shaping of Peace: Canada and the Search For World Order: 1943-57, Volume 2 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982).

Globe and Mail, 26 September 1985.

Ibid., 17 October 1985

Ibid.

Commonwealth Secretariat , 'The Commonwealth Accord on Southern Africa', October 20, 1985.

Globe and Mail, 22 October 1985.

Commonwealth Secretariat , Mission to South Africa (London: Penguin, 1986), p. 137.

Globe and Mail, 10 July, 1986.

'The London Mini-Summit', The Round Table, (No. 300, October 1986), p. 307.

Canada, Department of External Affairs , Communique, 26 September 1986. For the purposes of this essay all figures are in Canadian dollars. I have avoided using 1986 import figures because they were disproportionately affected by the sale of two jet aircraft from South Africa Airlines to Wardair, a Canadian commercial airline. The Canadian government expressed its displeasure at the sale but did not prohibit the transaction.

Globe and Mail, 13 August 1987.

Ibid.

Ibid., 12 October 1987.

Ingram, Derek , 'Commonwealth Notebook', The Round Table (No. 305, January 1988 ), p. 106.

Commonwealth Secretariat , ' The Okanagan Statement on Southern Africa and Programme of Action', October 1987. The Commonwealth Committee of Foreign Ministers met for the first time in February, 1988, in Lusaka.

Globe and Mail, 14 September 1985.

Ibid, 10 June 1987.

Canada, House of Commons Debates, 2 June 1986 , pp. 138-58.

A., Smith. , op. cit., p. 286.

The 1989 CIDA report detailing 1988 aid figures was not available at the time of writing.