Review: Parties Long Estranged
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| Published date | 01 September 2003 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200305800316 |
| Author | John Hilliker |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
PARTIES
LONG
ESTRANGED
Canada
and
Australia
in the
Twentieth
Century
Edited
by
Margaret
MacMillan
and
Francine
McKenzie
Vancouver:
UBC
Press,
2003,
32
0pp, $85.00
cloth,
ISBN
0-7748-0975-2,
$29.95 paper,
0-7748-0975-2
T
he
title
of
this collection
comes
from
Mackenzie
Bowell,
Canada's
minister
of
trade
and
commerce
in
1893.
"The
parties,"
observed
Bowell,
of
the
Australian
colonies,
"with whom
we have
been
so
long
estranged
can
scarcely
be
brought into
a
close
relationship
at
a
moment's
notice"(p
4).
The
title
is
apt,
for
although
Canada
and
Australia
have
much
in
common-arising
especially
from
their
colo-
nial
heritage
and their
status
as
middle
powers-geography
has
placed
them
as
far
apart
as
can
be,
and
resident
in
vastly
different geopolitical
environments. This book
is
the story
of
ongoing
estrangement,
com-
bined
with
efforts
to
offset
it
in
order
to
benefit
mutually
from
the
qualities
that
the
two
countries
share.
The
editors
rightly
point
out
that
the literature on
relations
between
Australia
and
Canada
is
thin,
but
acknowledge
that
Greg
Donaghy
has
covered
similar
ground
(albeit briefly)
in
Parallel
Paths:
Canadian-
Australian
Relations
since
the
1890s
(Ottawa:
Department
of
Foreign
Affairs
and
International
Trade 1995),
and
some
of
the
contributors
take
this
as
a
starting
point. The
overall
impression
left
is
similar to
his:
the
parties
have
remained
estranged,
but
there
have
been,
and
will
con-
tinue
to
be,
promising
opportunities
for
co-operation
on
matters
of
common
interest.
What
this
book
offers
is
a
wealth
of
detail
on
an
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
2003
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