Canada-US Relations: No Longer Special or Privileged

ABSTRACT

Canada has benefited more than most countries from the advantage of its geography, but proximity to the United States has created a cocoon of complacency on trade and security that is no longer assured. This makes the key question about the future of Canada-US relations whether the erratic “America First” impulses of Donald Trump will persist after he leaves the White House. If nationalist populism takes root, self-interest will prevail and the special partnership for Canada with the United States will fade. This essay considers the notion of privilege that served Canada well for decades as one that can no longer be taken for granted. Canada must take realistic actions to defend and advance its own interests. This will reflect the confidence and maturity of a nation fully aware of its capabilities and the limitations of its global potential.     

The Trade in Individual Maps from Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum after 1612

In 1612, following the death of the Antwerp print publisher Jan Baptist Vrients, Balthasar I and Jan Moretus II, at the time the managers of the Plantin Press, bought the copper plates used to print Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarium, together with the remainder of Vrients’s stock of the atlas. Subsequently, they reissued various editions of the Theatrum, selling them under their own names. They also traded in individual maps from the Theatrum, printing more when necessary. Hundreds of maps were sent to clients all over Europe. This article gives an overview of this so far unknown distribution of Ortelius’s maps in the first half of the seventeenth century.     

The distribution and sources of archaeological pitchstone in Britain

Pitchstone is a glassy volcanic rock, distinguishable from obsidian by having a higher water content. It forms lava flows and minor intrusions at several centres within the British Tertiary Volcanic Province (BTVP) in the west of Scotland and Ireland. Pitchstone artifacts and waste pieces have been recorded from 101 archaeological localities in Scotland and northern England, ranging in time from possibly Mesolithic to Bronze Age. To characterize the sources, 17 pitchstone samples from 11 sources within the BTVP were analysed for major elements by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), and for trace elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). 28 pitchstone pieces from 22 archaeological sites were analysed, mainly non-destructively, by INAA and interpreted as having originated from Arran sources. The Arran sources are divided into four petrographic types; the Corrygills, Tormore, Glen Shurig and Glen Cloy Types. Petrographic study of 15 archaeological samples indicated that three were of Corrygills type and two were of Tormore type. The remainder were less confidently attributed to the petrographic types distinguished. Arran pitchstone is found as far as 300 km from the Arran sources, at the chambered tomb of Ord North in Highland.     

The Liberal Party,Free Trade and the 1841 Election

It is a paradox that the Liberal Party's electoral defeat in 1841 attested to its underlying strength and vitality. This article focuses on the impact on party unity of the free trade measures advocated by the ministry in the months preceding its fall. The Liberal Party's bold electoral platform antagonised its protectionist MPs, a group previously overlooked in the historiography, but fell short of the demands of its radical wing for political reform. While all the ingredients for fragmentation existed, unity prevailed. Protestations of loyalty to the leadership could be heard from the mouths of Liberal MPs of all shades, from stalwart protectionists who coalesced around the ministry on traditional foreign policy grounds through to the most fervent radicals who celebrated its ‘new’ direction. Such findings of cohesion contradict accounts which have hitherto viewed the 1841 electoral defeat as evidence of the party's inchoateness. Indeed, this article shifts the historiographical narrative away from addressing why the Liberals lost to the more pertinent issue of why the losses suffered were not greater. In answering that question, both the sensitivity with which the financial agenda was presented by ministers and the flexibility of different sections of the Liberal Party in interpreting and presenting the free trade measures to the electorate are underlined. Above all, Lord John Russell is rehabilitated as a ‘popular’ leader and his importance in the development of the nascent Liberal Party is unearthed.     

The distribution and sources of archaeological obsidian from southern France

One-hundred-and-sixty-two pieces of obsidian have been found at 50 archaeological localities in southern France. The distribution is concentrated in the Rhône Valley, but includes sites in Drôme and in southwest France. The obsidian is mainly from sites of the Chassey culture (4th and 3rd millennium Neolithic), but there is one Impressed Ware site (Early Neolithic) and four Copper Age sites with obsidian. Only a small proportion of the obsidian (31 pieces) consists of waste pieces, providing little evidence for on-site working. 10 pieces of obsidian were analysed by instrumental neutron activation analysis to determine their geological provenance. Seven pieces proved to be from the Sardinian SA source, one from Lipari, and two from Pantelleria. Chronologically there is some division between sources used: all three pieces of Liparian obsidian so far identified from southern France, in this work and by earlier researchers, belong to Early Chassey contexts, and the two Pantellerian pieces are from a Copper Age dolmen. Sardinian and Liparian obsidian probably reached France by way of northern Italy. where both types were in use in contemporary cultures. The two Pantellerian pieces are evidence of some type of contact between France and the southern Mediterranean in the Copper Age, despite earlier suggestions of a very restricted distribution for the Pantellerian source. Obsidian was probably imported to southern France with other goods since the small amounts used would not warrant a separate trading network for obsidian alone.     

How Not to Run a Political Campaign: The Failure of the Unionist Free Traders 1903–6*

In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain launched a campaign aimed at the economic and political union of portions of the British empire behind a system of tariffs. The attack on Britain's 60‐year‐old system of free trade led to a polarising of opinion and sparked fierce controversy in the political sphere. It also shattered the unity of the Unionist Party, dividing it into three factions. One faction supported Chamberlain's policy, a second a more moderate policy proposed by party leader, Arthur Balfour, and a third – the smallest – the fiscal status quo. This article concerns this last faction, its motivations, actions and effectiveness. It argues that its concern with parliamentary alliances and methods, rather than the mass campaigns that were launched by its fellow opponents of Chamberlain, not only meant it was always bound to fail in its objectives, but made the problems of the Unionist Party far worse than they might otherwise have been. It concludes that the main reason why it failed to stop, or even delay Chamberlain's domination of the Unionist Party, not to mention suffering serious electoral losses, was largely due to its own incompetence in failing to grasp the new reality of mass politics and the need for new political approaches to deal with it.