SIPP Public Policy Papers 47

Abstract

Democracy occupies an uncertain position in Canadian public discourse; we want more of it at home, but we are hesitant to openly promote democratization overseas. Election campaigns are peppered with promises to revitalize Canadian democratic institutions, struggles to legalize same-sex marriage are waged in the name of universal human rights, and government scandal is decried for a lack of accountability and transparency. But while the United States brazenly asserts Wilsonian ‘transformational democracy’ as its foreign policy, Canadians are wary of being cast in the same imperialist mould as our neighbour (Welsh, 2004). Consequently, Canada’s democracy agenda has emerged tentatively in the government’s foreign policy and has not taken shape as a well-defined policy with clear objectives.