flat-tax rate to his own advantage. After an early exit
from the campaign, he returned to his job atForbes
magazine.
Forbes holds many traditionally Republican posi-
tions, including opposition to abortion, gun con-
trol, and legalization of drugs. He is in favor of a
strong national defense policy, the death penalty,
school choice programs, and a smaller federal gov-
ernment.
Impact Forbes’s presidential campaigns high-
lighted the need felt by many voters and members of
Congress to simplify the U.S. federal tax code. How-
ever, Forbes articulated no strong positions on the
economy or U.S. foreign policy.
Further Reading
Forbes, Steve.A New Birth of Freedom: Vision for Amer-
ica. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1999.
___.The U.S. Presidency in the Twenty-first Centur y:
Opportunities and Obstacles. London: British Li-
brary, 2000.
Victoria Erhart
See also Business and the economy in the United
States; Conservatism in U.S. politics; Dole, Bob;
Elections in the United States, 1996; Income and
wages in the United States; Journalism; Publishing;
Whitman, Christine Todd.
Foreign policy of Canada
Definition The interactions of the Canadian
government and its representatives with other
countries of the world
Despite the Liberal Party’s landslide victor y and the col-
lapse of the Progressive Conservatives in the 1993 election,
the new prime minister, Jean Chrétien, continued the policy
of his predecessors by emphasizing open markets for trade.
As the decade ended, however, Canada paid more attention
to the issue of “human security.”
The degree of emphasis placed on various global is-
sues by the Canadian government changed as the
1990’s progressed. Though by no means ignored by
Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mul-
roney, nontraditional foreign policy issues such as
human rights, the environment, and global gover-
nance received less attention than expanding trade.
Even though the election of 1993 produced a Lib-
eral victory, remarkable continuity in foreign policy
developed. Trade not only remained the top priority
in Canadian foreign policy but also was stressed even
more than during the preceding administration.
This was ironic, as the Liberal Party had been against
free trade for at least the previous five years. Follow-
ing the reelection of the Liberals and Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien in 1997, however, Canada devoted rel-
atively more attention to what its foreign minister
called the issue of “human security.”
The Preeminence of Economics The end of the
Cold War and the collapse of communism led to a
new period of world politics. Western countries were
no longer confronted by a perceived common threat
in the Soviet Union. Even though Canada sent a
modest force to participate in the U.S.-led coalition
in the first Gulf War of 1991, the relative lack of
threat to national security along with the opening of
foreign markets produced greater attention to eco-
nomic interests in Ottawa as well as much of the rest
of the world. After reaching a free trade agreement
with the United States in the late 1980’s, Canada
signed another pact with the United States and Mex-
ico in 1992 to create the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA). This agreement set as its pri-
mary goal the elimination of almost all tariffs be-
tween the three member states by 2010. It also abol-
ished several restrictions on foreign investment.
Related to the higher priority given to economics in
Canadian foreign policy, the accompanying decline
in attention to national security can be seen in
Mulroney’s decisions to reduce Canada’s North At-
lantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deployments in
Europe and to cap the country’s commitments to
peacekeeping.
After succeeding Mulroney and a brief stint by
Kim Campbell, Chrétien followed a similar list of pri-
orities. Ironically, during the previous years in oppo-
sition, the Liberals expressed skepticism toward free
trade. Following their return to power in 1993, they
embraced free trade even more than their Conserva-
tive predecessors. Particularly significant during his
first term in office, Chrétien led multiple “Team Can-
ada” trade missions. The objective of such missions was
to promote trade by further opening markets.
The Human Security Agenda The emphasis on eco-
nomics in Canadian foreign policy lessened during
Chrétien’s second term. The Liberal prime minis-344 Foreign policy of Canada The Nineties in America