The origins of Canada’s feminist foreign policy
| Author | Adam Chapnick |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020702019850827 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essays |
Scholarly Essay
International Journal
2019, Vol. 74(2) 191–205
The origins of Canada’s
! The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702019850827
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Adam Chapnick
Department of Defence Studies, Royal Military College of
Canada/Canadian Forces College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
In January 2019, a leading Canadian foreign policy blog, OpenCanada.org, declared that
‘‘[u]nder the government of Justin Trudeau, Canada has embraced a feminist foreign
policy—gradually at first, and with fervor over the past year.’’ Although critics have
debated the policy’s effectiveness, the embrace, if not also the fervor, was indisputable.
By 2019, the Trudeau government’s second foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, was
proclaiming Canada’s feminist approach to international relations openly and regularly.
The international community had also noticed. This article investigates the origins of the
new Canadian foreign policy ‘‘brand.’’ It finds that, contrary to popular thinking, the
prime minister himself played at most a minor role in the initiation of what became a
full-fledged transformation of Canada’s global image.
Keywords
Canadian foreign policy, Justin Trudeau, feminist foreign policy, foreign policy branding,
liberal foreign policy, brand, gender
In January 2019, a leading Canadian foreign policy blog, OpenCanada.org,
declared that ‘‘[u]nder the government of Justin Trudeau, Canada has embraced
a feminist foreign policy—gradually at first, and with fervor over the past year.’’1
Although critics have debated the policy’s effectiveness,2 the embrace, if not also
1.
OpenCanada.org, ‘‘In Depth: Is the Future of Foreign Policy Feminist?’’, January 2019, https://
www.opencanada.org/indepth/future-foreign-policy-feminist/ (accessed 23 April 2019).
2.
See, for example, Bessma Momani, ‘‘Our feminist foreign policy is not perfect, but in Jordan, it’s
doing a lot of good,’’ The Globe and Mail, 31 March 2019, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
opinion/article-our-feminist-foreign-policy-is-not-perfect-but-in-jordan-its-doing/
(accessed
23
April 2019). A domestic scandal in spring 2019 also caused some to question Trudeau’s personal
credibility as a feminist. See Sarah Lyall, ‘‘What’s a feminist government? Canada, and Trudeau,
grapple with the question,’’ The New York Times, 15 April 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/
15/world/canada/trudeau-jody-wilson-raybould-feminism.html (accessed 23 April 2019).
Corresponding author:
Adam Chapnick, Canadian Forces College, 215 Yonge Blvd., Toronto, Ontario, M5M 3H9, Canada.
Email: chapnick@cfc.dnd.ca
192
International Journal 74(2)
the fervor, was indisputable. By 2019, the Trudeau government’s second foreign
minister, Chrystia Freeland, was proclaiming Canada’s feminist approach to inter-
national relations openly and regularly. Her department, Global Affairs
Canada (GAC),
was busy implementing Canada’s
Feminist
International
Assistance Policy. The Canadian-sponsored Elsie Initiative on Women, Peace,
and Security, announced in Vancouver in November 2017, had pledged to
increase women’s participation in peace operations. A gender chapter had been
added to the Canada–Chile Free Trade Agreement, and there were new refer-
ences
to
gender
in
the
still-to-be-ratified
United
States–Mexico–Canada
Agreement (formerly the North American Free Trade Agreement). A Canadian
initiative during Ottawa’s 2018 G7 presidency had resulted in a new gender equity
advisory council. Canada had hosted the first ever meeting of female foreign min-
isters. GAC itself had added a new ambassador for women, peace, and security.
And Ottawa had pledged to co-chair a global network on women, peace, and
security with Uruguay in 2020. The wider international community had also
noticed. The Center for Global Development lauded Canada’s emerging feminist
foreign policy in December 2017. The US-based Foreign Policy magazine did so in
September 2018.3
Although it is difficult to be conclusive about government thinking without
access to cabinet and other confidential documents (that are unlikely to be released
for decades), there is sufficient evidence in the public record, when combined with
practitioner interviews, to attempt a preliminary analysis of how this feminist label
became enshrined within the national, and international, lexicon. For some, Justin
Trudeau’s self-identification as a feminist4 implies that the Canadian prime minis-
ter himself directed the transformation of his country’s global posture. Accusations
that Trudeau-era cabinet ministers have had little room for independent initiatives
3.
Charles Kenny, ‘‘Canada’s feminist foreign policy: Building on a strong start,’’ Center for Global
Development blog, 11 December 2017, https://www.cgdev.org/blog/canadas-feminist-foreign-policy-
building-strong-start (accessed 23 April 2019); Lyric Thompson and Christina Asquith, ‘‘One small
step for feminist foreign policy,’’ Foreignpolicy.com, 20 September 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/
2018/09/20/one-small-step-for-feminist-foreign-policy-women-canada/ (accessed 23 April 2019);
Teresa Wright, ‘‘France takes torch passed by Canada, will focus on gender equality at G7
summit,’’ The Globe and Mail, 7 April 2019, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-
france-takes-torch-passed-by-canada-will-focus-on-gender-equality-at/ (accessed 23 April 2019);
Teresa Wright, ‘‘Trudeau government’s feminist politics need to be backed with more money:
Oxfam Canada,’’ Huffington Post, 5 March 2019, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/03/05/tru-
deau-governments-feminist-politics-need-to-be-backed-with-more-money-oxfam-cana-
da_a_23684740/ (accessed 23 April 2019); Global Affairs Canada (GAC), ‘‘Foreign affairs minister
announces Canadian contribution to Elsie initiative fund for uniformed women in peace operations,’’
28
March
2019,
https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2019/03/foreign-affairs-minister-
announces-canadian-contribution-to-the-elsie-initiative-fund-for-uniformed-women-in-peace-opera-
tions.html (accessed 23 April 2019); Oxfam Canada, ‘‘Turning feminist promises into progress: 2019,’’
5 March 2019, https://www.oxfam.ca/publication/2019-scorecard/ (accessed 23 April 2019).
4.
Alexandra Kotowski, ‘‘Canada’s feminist prime minister, one year in,’’ Human Rights Watch, 2
November 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/02/canadas-feminist-prime-minister-one-year
(accessed 23 April 2019).
Chapnick
193
are commonplace.5 Scholars who have studied the powers of Canadian prime min-
isters have long argued that the ‘‘Centre’’ controls the government narrative, not to
mention the policies that stem from it. Even a recent book by a former prime
ministerial chief of staff which challenges traditional academic thinking is clear
that ‘‘a prime minister can never fully delegate the responsibility for foreign rela-
tions to other ministers.’’6 Canada’s leading scholar on political branding has
argued similarly: ‘‘As connectivity intensifies,’’ Alex Marland explains, ‘‘political
communication orbits around party leaders, coalescing to fuse the brands of the
prime minister, the governing party, and the government. This empowers the fer-
ocity of a top–down chain of command that. . . undermines democracy itself.’’7
Surely, then, Trudeau himself must have played a leading role in the construction
of the new Canadian foreign policy ‘‘brand.’’8
The only comprehensive academic study of Canada’s feminist foreign policy to
date—a chapter in the 2017 edition of Canada Among Nations, written by the
University of Ottawa’s Rebecca Tiessen and Emma Swan—implies as much, and
provides a thorough account of Trudeau’s many personal contributions to the
branding process.9 But Tiessen and Swan focus exclusively on the prime minister’s
actions; they don’t consider the significance of what he did not do. This article
broadens the methodological lens by delving more deeply into published govern-
ment documents and interviews with a number of current and former practitioners.
It arrives at a different conclusion. First, there is little reason to believe that Justin
Trudeau’s feminism had a significant impact on his party’s thinking about foreign
policy before the Liberals took power. Moreover, the Trudeau government’s first
year gave little to no indication of a coherent plan for an explicitly feminist turn on
the world stage. It is therefore possible, if not likely, that others shaped what has
ultimately become a new Canadian global persona.
5.
Paul Wells, ‘‘In the Trudeau government, what’s a Cabinet shuffle for?,’’ Macleans.ca, 14 January
2019, https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/in-the-trudeau-government-whats-a-cabinet-shuffle-
for/ (accessed 23 April 2019); Omer Aziz, ‘‘After the SNC-Lavalin affair, we must strip the influence
of political staffers,’’ The Globe and Mail, 15 February 2019, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
opinion/article-after-the-snc-lavalin-affair-we-must-strip-the-influence-of-political/
(accessed
23
April 2019).
6.
Ian Brodie, At the Centre of Government: The Prime Minister and the Limits on Political Power
(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018), 35. Brodie provides a thorough summary of the
scholarly debate in his first chapter.
7.
Alex Marland, Brand Command: Canadian Politics and Democracy in the Age of Message Control
(Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016), xiii.
8.
Alex Marland, ‘‘The brand image of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau in international
context,’’ Canadian Foreign Policy...
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