Intergroup Relations

The decline of the TRANZAC and ANZA clubs is in part a reflection of how quickly Australians adapt to Canadian life. The reasons for this easy assimilation are obvious – Australia and Canada have much in common: both are industrialized and highly urbanized countries with pockets of population dotted across vast expanses of land. They are affluent nations, but their standards of living are tied to the export of natural resources. Both have small populations that have depended on immigration for economic growth. They share a similar political heritage: both were established as federations of former British colonies and are heirs to the parliamentary system of government with, for the time being, the British monarch as head of state. They have fought together in various skirmishes across the British empire and in two world wars, and they now cooperate in various United Nations peace enforcement and peacekeeping missions across the globe. Because of these similarities, Australians and Canadians soon feel comfortable in each other’s country, and, in general, Australians do not seek out the company of their compatriots living in Canada.

Although Australia and Canada have much in common, their peoples originally knew very little about each other beyond stereotypical images. An 1925 editorial in the Cowichan Leader noted: “The average Australian has a very sketchy idea of Canada. To him it is a land of snow and ice. In referring to it or the U.S.A. he uses the same term America.” The same could have been said of Canadian views of Australia, which tended towards images of the arid outback and odd marsupials.

It is no surprise that there was such a low level of awareness between the two countries: their peoples had little cause to intermingle; immigration rates were low; and Australian and Canadian community, business, and political leaders rarely came in contact with one another. The exception to this was during periods of renewed fervour for the British commonwealth, such as occurred in the 1920s at imperial conferences and during later commonwealth junkets and meetings of commonwealth leaders. When prominent Winnipeg journalist John W. Dafoe visited Melbourne in 1925 to attend the Third Imperial Press Conference, he commented on the affinity between Australians and Canadians: “The typical Australians in their customs, manners, language, attitude towards life generally, are not alien to Canadians. Indeed it might be claimed that they are nearer the Canadian than the British standard – that Canadian and Australian minds cog more easily.”

It was this sort of affinity that Toronto businessman James S. Duncan wanted to capitalize on when he established the Australian-Canadian Association in 1955. Duncan was a natural to lead such an association – his father had been born in Australia during the gold rush of the 1850s – but more important, as president of Canada’s leading agricultural equipment manufacturer, Massey-Harris-Ferguson Ltd, Duncan was also chairman of its Australian subsidiary, H.V. McKay Massey Harris Pty Ltd. In founding the Australian-Canadian Association, Duncan hoped to foster greater links between the two countries, with the ultimate aim of “preserving the unity of the British Commonwealth.” It was expected that the association would promote closer cooperation between Australians and Canadians by increasing the flow of personal contacts through public visits and exchanges and by widening the channels of communication through the media, popular culture, and fine arts. Although the association seems never to have met the aspirations of its founders – in part because of a lack of interest in Australia – the federal civil service in both countries began a regular exchange program to enable Australian and Canadian bureaucrats to learn from each other’s experience. The scheme began in 1957 with a pilot program in the immigration departments, and it has continued since then with official exchanges at both the federal and provincial, and state levels.