Executive Summary
This paper examines how integrating Canadian values and national interests can contribute to policy resilience – insulating policy initiatives in domains of economic prosperity, social cohesion, and political integrity from external pressures such as foreign intrusion, asymmetric and even predatory trade policies, and human rights abuses.
Such integration will allow the Canadian government to engage with two audiences in managing its foreign relations – the audience of political leaders and influencers in the countries with which we deal, and the audience of the Canadian public.
Based on this conceptual framework, this paper then examines challenges from the U.S., China, and India in areas of foreign interference, trade, and human rights, and offers suggestions for Canada’s response.
Introduction
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address to the 2026 Davos meetings called for Canada’s foreign affairs to be “principled and pragmatic.” This builds on the theme of “pragmatic diplomacy” articulated by former foreign minister (now industry minister) Mélanie Joly.
Principled pragmatism is not itself a policy but rather a broad policy approach of “values-based realism” enabling Canada to free itself from over-dependence on an increasingly unreliable United States by strengthening relations with other states whose politics and policies may not be fully commensurate with Canada’s.
While policies of the current U.S. administration under President Donald Trump are particularly problematic, it seems rather unlikely that Canada’s trade and security partnerships with the U.S. can be restored fully by future U.S. administrations. Hence, Canada faces critical challenges in strengthening relations with countries like China and India, with which Canada has had serious disagreements in recent years, as well as other countries that do not share Canada’s commitments to democracy and the rule of law, market economies, and human rights. This will require a finely-tuned application of “principled pragmatism.”
This paper examines how principled pragmatism can inform Canada’s relations with the U.S., China, and India by integrating Canadian values with our national interests. It expands upon my previous work of integrating values and interests in the context of trade and human rights under the theme of “complementarity.”
I begin the discussion with an overview of Canadian values and national interests, a discussion of the possibilities for integration, and suggestions on the implications for policy resilience, before turning to the specifics of Canada’s relations with the U.S., China, and India.
The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
