William Lyon Mackenzie King : a New Era of Canadian relations with Europe

The article presents the Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s personal convictions and philosophy referring to Canadian relations with Britain and with Europe in general. It attempts to explain the reasons of Mackenzie King’s anti-Imperial and anti-European attitude through analysis of the excerpts of his biography, diaries and parliamentary speeches. The article shows the tremendous influence Mackenzie King’s personality and his own beliefs had on Canadian foreign policy, Imperial relations and how his view of Canada’s independent diplomacy shaped a new era of Canadian-European relations and contributed to the recognition of Canada abroad. The article concentrates on the selected political and historical events (the Statute of Westminster of 1931 in particular) that loosened the ties between Canada and Britain. In particular the emphasis is put on these changes in the bilateral Canadian-British relations and these actions and decisions undertaken by Mackenzie King or his administration that changed the Canadian government’s approach to European affairs and reshaped both the perception of Europe in Canada and the perception of Canada in Europe