An interview with Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program of the International Relations Center
by Stefan Christoff
A protest in Oaxaca in 2006. Photo: Pazkual
One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first major foreign visits after being elected to his first minority government in 2006 was to Latin America and the Caribbean. The trip aimed to promote a Canadian foreign policy focused on establishing “new partnerships in the Americas.”
Canada has aggressively pushed to establish trade agreements in the Americas, and in pursuit of this, signed bilateral trade deals with Peru and Colombia in 2009. Concurrent to the push towards more trade pacts in the Americas, Canada has cut the number of nations receiving bilateral aid through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).