Facing down the lion: Canada's refusal to support the Egyptian expedition, 1882

Abstract

This thesis outlines the influences that shaped Canada's refusal to support Britain's occupation of Egypt in 1882. Here, Canada set a precedent of inaction that continued as a seminal part of its approach to foreign policy. The excuse of legal constraints in the Militia Act was given as the official reason for the refusal in 1882; of greater importance, however, were the series of underlying factors that brought Canada to this decision. Indeed, in many ways, this was a decision more than a decade in the making. As an often overlooked event in Canadian history, this thesis has relied on a variety of primary sources to assess the influences that affected the key decision-makers, provide an indication of the popular opinion, and, in a larger sense, point to the fact that this episode is of more significance than the attention it has garnered to date in Canadian historiography.