| Summary/Abstract |
On 29 March 2016, in a speech at the University of Ottawa, Stéphane Dion outlined “the guiding principle” that he intended to follow as the Trudeau government’s first minister of global affairs. He called it “responsible conviction”: an approach to policymaking that combined the need to balance his personal sense of right and wrong with a pragmatic understanding of the consequences of Ottawa’s policy choices. The decision to announce Canada’s new global posture so publicly recalls the conduct of the Canadian foreign policy establishment during the Second World War, when Ottawa first proclaimed its allegiance to another decision-making framework: the functional principle. This brief essay reviews the history and utility of the Canadian version of functionalism with an eye to drawing lessons for Minister Dion’s successor, Chrystia Freeland, and her contemporaries. Understanding the ultimate plight of the functional principle might make the new minister less adamant about placing responsible conviction at the centre of her foreign policy platform.
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