How Britain's Economic, Political, and Military Weakness Forced Canada into the Arms of the United States: The 1988 Joanne Goodman Lectures

In these lively, timely, and contentious essays J.L. Granatstein takes on one of the ‘hoary central myths’ of Canadian history and historiography: that the Liberals sold out Canada to the United States. It is a myth, he claims, perpetuated by Conservative historians such as David Creighton and George Grant, and by socialists like James Laxer. The original villain of this long-running melodrama is not the Liberals, the author maintains, but Britain.

Focusing on events surrounding the first and second world wars and the old War, Granatstein argues that Canadian governments, both Liberal and Conservative, turned to the south of economic ties only when their efforts to form such ties with Britain failed, and for defence only when Britain was too weak to guarantee Canadian security.

As Canadians continue to argue with each other about the benefits of a cosier relationship with out American cousins, Granatstein provides a salutary reminder that the historical roots of the debate stretch not only across the forty-ninth parallel but back across the Atlantic too.