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Washington must recognize the limits of Canada as a strategic ally
BY JULIAN SPENCER-CHURCHILL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 05/27/22 2:30 PM ET
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Canada is not the automatic U.S. ally that its historical submission suggests. Despite sharing similar democratic values, Ottawa nevertheless always seeks to increase its autonomy. While appearing to clothe its apparent bandwagoning with Washington on the most crucial strategic issues in defense of North America, Ottawa also is in a subtle search for allies to counterbalance U.S. influence. The implication is that Washington decision-makers must recognize that Canada is the most keen ally when it is embedded within the broadest of coalitions.
Canada secretly looks to Paris, rather than Washington, for its security. As best articulated by professor Justin Massie at the University of Ottawa, Canada’s foreign policy is to maximize its autonomy versus the U.S., by counterbalancing Washington with European coalitions. The net effect is that Canada never will participate in a military campaign or operation with the U.S. unless France is present, regardless of whether the United Kingdom is participating. So, Canada was present in the Korean War in 1950, Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Somalia in 1993, Afghanistan from 2001-2014, and the bombing of Libya in 2011 — but absent for the Vietnam War, the 1983 invasion of Grenada, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This is because France represents the European counterbalance to the U.S., whereas England, much of whose deterrent is dependent on U.S. technology, is no longer a strategically independent country.
Ottawa’s principal foreign policy goal is to embed and bind the U.S. into an institutionalized multilateral coalition that includes powerful counterbalances to the U.S. Practically speaking, only if French boots and planes are on the ground in Taiwan, will Canada help the U.S. and defend democracy there. This will mean that appealing to Ottawa requires Washington to create a coalition that appeases and includes Paris.
Canada’s strategic position is buttressed by a political culture that views aspects of U.S. society unfavorably. The tropes are at least a century old: the U.S. is popularly seen as suffering from high crime rates, antipathy to environmental issues, inequitable education, poorly traveled, influenced by finance capitalists, too much campaign financing, unsuccessful at alleviating poverty, intrusion of religion in politics, litigious, militarily interventionist, and influenced by its armaments industry. Canada has a talent for camouflaging its anti-American insecurity, and this resonates with the left in Canada, which forms the government two-thirds of the time. The surprising fact is that Canadian leaders, who cynically take advantage of these prejudices, privately give generous assessments of their American counterparts.