North Atlantic World: Canada and the Wartime Plans for the Post-War Global Economy, 1941–1947

• Published in: London Journal of Canadian Studies
• Main Author: Hector Mackenzie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: UCL Press 2022
• Subjects: America; E11-143; Canada; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2021v36.006; https://doaj.org/article/8e2284d523a4409c940cd4bb9e5b63d4

There were numerous bilateral financial and commercial measures in the 1940s within the North Atlantic Triangle of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, in wartime and thereafter. 1 However, the focus of this article is on Canada’s interest in the multilateral economic proposals for the post-war world. As the following account demonstrates, that option for Canadian policymakers was likewise defined and framed within the North Atlantic Triangle. As for the long-standing but elusive goal of diversification of markets for Canadian exports, the initial benefits to Canada of the multilateral alternative tended to reinforce rather than contradict the trend – evident in Canada’s bilateral deals – for its fortunes to be identified with its commerce with its North Atlantic partners. In other words, Canada’s economic world was fundamentally a North Atlantic world, and its multilateral plans and actions took that reality into account.