Doctoral Thesis Defence - Theodore Cogan

Title: 

Sharing the Nation's Heart Globally?  Foreign Aid and the Canadian Public, 1950-1980

Abstract:

If asked to paint a picture of Canadian foreign policy after 1945, most would prominently include images of peacekeeping and refugee resettlement. Those painting a broader picture might also include images of trade deals and human rights campaigns. Some might also include images of foreign aid, though it is likely that those depictions would be relegated to the background. This reflects the fact that Canadians have never aligned foreign aid with national identity and shared values in the same way as other foreign policy pursuits. Canadians’ lack of engagement with foreign aid is somewhat surprising given that it outpaces most other post-war foreign policy priorities in terms of longevity, direct expenditures and individual involvement by Canadians.

However, the fact that foreign aid has not become a symbol of Canadian generosity and humanitarianism in the same way as peacekeeping and refugee resettlement is by no means coincidental. Between 1950 and 1980, the federal government undertook significant efforts, both on its own and in partnership with churches, youth organizations, universities and NGOs, to build public support for foreign aid and portray it as favourably aligned with Canadian values. However, as time passed persistent political, policy, and economic challenges began to fracture public opinion on the foreign aid file. As divisions emerged, many of the civil society groups which were once strongly aligned with government’s approach to foreign aid began to assert themselves as alternative voices of authority on aid. These groups challenged, and in some cases displaced, the federal government’s favoured narratives about how foreign aid should be undertaken so that it reflected Canadian values, Canadian identity, and the role Canada ought to be playing in the post-war world. The emergence of a diversity of authoritative narratives about foreign aid had the effect of fracturing public support and limiting its potential to be accepted as a national project on the same scale as peacekeeping and refugee resettlement.