| Summary/Abstract |
Lately, Mitchell Sharp’s 1972 Third Option paper has acquired a new resonance—and a new readership—as Canada again finds itself worrying about dependence on the United States and revisiting dreams of new economic linkages overseas. Although the Third Option was seen at the time as a radical new call for Canadian economic and cultural independence, it was actually the latest chapter in a long-running foreign policy debate about whether Canada’s economic future lay in embracing—or resisting—the powerful pull of continentalism. This article re-examines Sharp’s Third Option initiative against that broader historical background. It argues that the Third Option, like Canada’s previous quests for economic independence, was prompted as much by fears of rising US protectionism as by concerns about eroding Canadian sovereignty. The paper also notes that the Third Option, again like past efforts at trade diversification, largely failed, and that Canada–US integration only deepened in the decade after Sharp launched his initiative. However, the long-run trend toward growing dependency on the United States may finally be reversing, and Canada’s trade and investment flows overseas are likely to increase in the decades to come. This paper argues not for a re-heated Third Option but for a fourth one instead—the simultaneous pursuit of continental and global integration.
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