Abstract

It is almost four and a half decades since Canada began giving aid to the underdeveloped countries. The concept was new but there was a strong obligation among Canadians to help the poor and less fortunate peoples in the Third World. During the post-war period, Canada's foreign aid programs were characterized as selfish and confusing by many Canadians. In the Third World, they were considered to be deceptive in the sense that aid has made Canada the real recipient and not the developing countries. The reasons are understandable since CIDA's aid policies were influenced by internal and external factors. Aid was used to promote trade and investment, to create jobs in Canada, assist Canadian farmers and to boost the Canadian economy. Overseas, aid was used to protect Canadian economic interests or try to influence internal politics or foreign policy views of recipients as well as to increase Canada's image and prestige among donors. Such use of aid is readily interpreted by the leaders of the Third World as proof that Canada's entire aid program is part of a neo-imperialist scheme. While most Canadians supported foreign aid, they knew very little about it and the ones who knew were skeptical about its effectiveness. Furthermore, the paucity of bibliography proved that academics were not interested in the subject. This lack of interest is primarily due to the difficulty in obtaining information from the Canadian Government who regarded aid as a sensitive issue of Canada's relations with the Third World. In addition, Ottawa realized that critical scrutiny by academics of its aid program could embarrass the Canadian government as well as recipients, and undermine public confidence in aid.