North Atlantic triangle

The North Atlantic triangle is a theoretical construct for studying the history of Canadian foreign policy.

First proposed by the historian John Bartlet Brebner,[1] it seeks to explain the importance of United Kingdom–United States relations to Canada's security, and even survival, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

[4] Culturally and philosophically, most Canadians of the era (especially the ethnically British majority) identified with Britain and the British Empire and distrusted the United States, but at the same time many Canadians were eager to trade with the large, growing, and nearby market in the United States.

At the Washington conference of 1871 which discussed all issues of Anglo-American relations, Canada's prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald participated as part of the British delegation.

Canada also hoped to become part of the inner circle of allied decision making during the Second World War, and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King hosted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt in Quebec City for that reason.