Dynamics and Trajectories

Canada and North America

Edited by Michael Fox, Andrew Nurse

Canada, the United States and Mexico are involved in a complex relationship governed by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but given the diversity between and within these societies, it is difficult to determine which interactions are beneficial to entire countries. Through a multidisciplinary perspective, Dynamics and Trajectories provides case studies into the diverse factors that affect political, economic, cultural and foreign policy decisions as well as the social and human dynamics of population movements after NAFTA. Collectively, the essays in this collection suggest that Canada’s evolving relationship with its North American partners cannot be interpreted through the lens of a single overarching dynamic, but rather as a range of factors that will likely affect different sections of the population in different ways. Dynamics and Trajectories also illuminates the ways in which inequalities in power in all three countries affect the process of international interchange and how this can condition a wider engagement with globalization.

Contents

Patterns of Interaction: Canada’s Relationship with North America (Andrew Nurse) • A North American Nation: Canada’s International Relations in the Twentieth Century (Hector McKenzie) • North American Muralism, Cultural Nationalism and Canadian Art Discourse in the 1930s and 1940s (Kirk Neirgarth) • Canada’s Changing Labour Relations with Mexico: The Evolution of the Guest Worker Program (Shanti Fernando) • Canada and Mexico: Close Friends, Distant Partners (Daniel Arturo & Hector Santamaria) •To Peacekeep or Not to Peacekeep? Canada and Mexico Compared (Kevin Spooner) • Quebec and North America (David Dyment) • Managing North American Trade Disputes: The Role of the World Trade Organization in the Softwood Lumber Dispute (Russell Williams) • The Tail that Wags the Dog: Business Interests behind Deep Integration (Julian Castro-Réa) • Paradigm Shift? Canadian American Relations after Obama (Andrew Nurse) • Epilogue (Michael Fox) • References

About the Authors

MICHAEL FOX is a professor of geography and environment at Mount Allison University.

ANDREW NURSE is an associate professor of Canadian studies at Mount Allison University.