which Canada took part. As one of the wealthier na-
tions, Canada contributed significantly to the bud-
get for such meetings.
The Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth
Games are probably the most visible demonstration
of the Commonwealth. Held every four years, the
games attract representatives from most of the Com-
monwealth countries, with seventy countries in
- The first event was held in 1930 in Hamilton,
Ontario. Canada’s most successful games had been
on home soil, at Edmonton in 1978, where the Cana-
dians led the medals table, beating traditional rivals
Australia and England.
In the 1990’s, there were three games, the most
significant for Canada being the 1994 games, held at
Victoria, British Columbia, using its Centennial Sta-
dium. The host country traditionally does well, and
this occasion was no exception, with Canada win-
ning a record 133 medals, though still unable to
overtake Australia, which dominated all three games
of the decade. The Victoria Games were also memo-
rable for the readmittance of South African athletes
and, for the first time, the inclusion of handicapped
athletes—in athletic, swimming, and bowl events.
Sadly, 1994 was the last time that Hong Kong athletes
would participate in the games, prior to the terri-
tory’s annexation into China.
Canada remained traditionally strong in gymnas-
tics, swimming and diving, shooting, and wrestling. In
both 1990 and 1994, for example, Canada won the
team gold medal for men’s gymnastics and women’s
rhythmic gymnastics. In 1990 in Auckland, New Zea-
land, gymnast Curtis Hibbert collected five individual
golds and one silver. Gymnast Lori Strong took three
golds and a bronze in those games, while her fellow
gymnast Erika-Leigh Stirton collected five golds at
the 1998 games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the first
time the games had been held in an Asian country.
In other sports, Canada performed very well in
1994 in athletics, winning four golds and seven sil-
vers. Outstanding were the performances of Angela
Chalmers in the 3,000 meters, where she added a
gold to the two golds she won at Auckland, and Mike
Smith, winning a gold for the decathlon to add to his
Auckland gold. In boxing, Mike Strange won a gold
in the lightweight division, a victory he was to repeat
in 1998. Tanya Dubnicoff won the gold medal in the
women’s sprint cycle race. In diving, the women cap-
tured seven of the nine medals available.
The Commonwealth of Learning Of a number of in-
stitutions the Commonwealth had set up, the Com-
monwealth of Learning was probably the most sig-
nificant for Canada. It had been proposed by
Canada in the 1980’s, and land had been donated in
Vancouver, British Columbia. Its aim was to provide
educational resources to the developing countries
of the Commonwealth, especially through elec-
tronic means and prepared packages for use on-site.
It was not a university, nor did it have students or
scholarships. Nevertheless, it has been able to de-
velop learning resources in many fields, especially in
banking, government, and administration. Parallel
to this is the Commonwealth Foundation, based in
London, which provides travel grants, cultural ex-
changes, and cooperation between nongovernmen-
tal, professional, and cultural bodies.Impact Much of the impact of the Commonwealth
has been low-key. For example, out of the 1994 Com-
monwealth Games, the Canadian committee of the
games and the government offered to produce a
number of teaching packages for coaching individ-
ual athletes in developing countries, where sports fa-
cilities were limited. Canadian universities contin-
ued to welcome Commonwealth students and host
Commonwealth conferences of various sorts. For ex-
ample, the inaugural conference of the Common-
wealth Association for Public Administration and
Management was held in Charlottetown, Prince Ed-
ward Island, in 1995.Further Reading
Buckner, Phillip, ed.Canada and the End of Empire.
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press,- Chapters on postcolonialism and Canada’s
relationship with the United Kingdom.
Commonwealth Secretariat.Current Good Practices
and New Developments in Public Service Management:
Profile of the Public Service of Canada.London: Au-
thor, 1994. Part of the public-service profile of best
practices in various Commonwealth countries.
Dheensaw, Cleve.The Commonwealth Games: The First
Sixty Years, 1930-1990.Auckland, New Zealand:
Hodder & Stoughton, 1994. Traces the develop-
ment of the games. Pictures and statistics.
David Barratt
See also Foreign policy of Canada; Mulroney, Brian;
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).146 Canada and the British Commonwealth The Nineties in America