Book Launch: The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy by Brendan Kelly
On November 28, the Graham Centre launched Junior Fellow Brendan Kelly’s biography, The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy, in the Munk School Library.
Cadieux was the son of a Montreal postman who became a distinguished Canadian diplomat, ultimately rising to become under-secretary of state for external affairs and Canada’s first francophone ambassador to the United States. He was at the centre of Canadian foreign policy-making from the 1940s into the late 1970s.
After a brief and touching reminiscence by Cadieux’s son Rene, Kelly discussed his book. The three central strands in Cadieux’s career, he argued, were anti-Communism, French Canadian nationalism, and professionalism.
The early Cold War, a brief stint behind the Iron Curtain, and a longer assignment in Indochina in the mid-‘50s shaped Cadieux’s baleful view of the Soviet threat. While he never had any sympathy for the excesses of McCarthyism, he could be impatient with those he suspected of underestimating the dangers posed by the Communist world (including Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau).
Throughout his career Cadieux also worked hard to make the Department of External Affairs and Canadian foreign policy reflect the country’s “French fact.” He pushed hard for the recruitment of more French Canadians and for aid programs in francophone Africa. He was also a fierce opponent of Quebec efforts to establish an independent diplomatic presence, abetted by French president Charles de Gaulle.
Cadieux was devoted to the ideal of an impartial public service working in the interests of the state. This led to frequent clashes with foreign minister Paul Martin Sr., whom Cadieux accused of subordinating foreign policy to his personal political ambitions, and with Pierre Trudeau, whose disdain for the expertise of the foreign service and reliance on outside advisers grated on Cadieux. Despite their differences, Trudeau made Cadieux ambassador to Washington, then to the European Communities, and a negotiator of maritime boundaries with the United States. After a final stint as special adviser for the 1980 Quebec referendum, Cadieux retired, to die a year later.
This event was made possible in part by a donation from the University of British Columbia Press.