Internationalism has long been central to Canadian foreign policy. Although often invoked by governments and individuals, and much debated, it remains an ill-defined, even obscure concept. This article assesses empirically how the Canadian public regards internationalism, and explores the underlying structure of internationalist attitudes. Public opinion data from 1985 provide evidence of four dimensions of attitudes: active, economic, liberal-conservative and independent internationalism. There is a strong consensus on the first two types of internationalism but no such consensus behind the others. Scattered data from across the post-Second World War period seem to support these findings. Using such a typology of internationalism may both illuminate debates on Canadian foreign policy and advance studies of Canadian public attitudes.

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Whither internationalism?ARE CANADIANS COMMITTED INTERNATIONALISTS or have they begun to turn inwards? Has necessity forced them to give greater priority to domestic issues? Have they chosen to become not merely disinterested in international affairs but more isolationist? Did these attitudes change with the end of the cold war or with a decade or more of retrenchment in international commitments by the federal government? Did they shift again in wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001? Will they do so in response to the war on Iraq?The purpose of this article is to begin to track Canadian public internationalism over time. The attitudes of the Canadian public toward involvement in international affairs have not traditionally been the subject of much serious scholarly attention. In contrast to an active and ongoing debate in the United States about the degree to which Americans support internationalist foreign policies, public opinion on foreign policy and internationalism has, until recently, been largely ignored by Canadian analysts. Certainly it has not been as closely or extensively studied as opinion elsewhere, and the examination of trends over time is still rare., Such temporal trends, more than snap-Professor of International Studies, University ofNorthern British Columbia. Funding for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Northern British Columbia seeds grant program. Iam grateful to Suzanne LeBlanc for valuable comments on an earlier draft. Daniel Savas managed the 2001-2002 survey work at Ipsos-Reid. Assistance was provided by Chris Baker ofEnvironics, Bob Burge of the Queen's University Canadian Opinion Research Archive, and staff of Compas, Goldfar b Associates, and Decima Research. Michael Driedger prepared andformasted the datafilesfor much of the 1980s survey data used here. All the analysis herein employed spss, Version 10.i The first attempt to take a broad perspective on internationalism as a public phenomenon was Don Munton and Tom Keating, 'Internationalism and the Canadian INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Winter 2002-2003 Don Muntonshots from single polls, will be necessary to unravel the puzzle of Canadians' involvement with the world. REVIEWING THE DEBATEAlthough observers seem to agree that internationalism became the watchword of Canadian foreign policy during the so-called golden era of the early post-World War II years, debates have erupted regularly since the 1970s over the extent to which this internationalist tradition still holds. Some argue that Canadian policies in recent years have reflected a declining internationalism; others maintain that internationalism is with us still. More than a decade ago, Cranford Pratt noted an 'eroding' internationalist spirit in Canada, particularly amongst Ottawa officialdom. 2 Kim Richard Nossal charged more recently that the 1990s had witnessed 'a progressive retreat from internationalism,' which had been 'nailed to the perch' by the government of Jean Chr~tien and its '...

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