Shadows of Empire: Hard Brexit, Commonwealth revival, and UK-Canada relations

This article examines how UK-Canada relations will be impacted by a hard Brexit. The article proceeds in two stages. First, it examines in detail how the Brexit process to date has changed the meaning of withdrawal, focusing on the triptych of a hard(er) Brexit, hard bargaining, and the Global Britain discourse. Second, it considers whether UK-Canada relations will benefit from this harder Brexit, focusing on the categories of diplomacy, foreign policy, economics, and politics. The article concludes that, even though a harder Brexit is being undertaken in the name of improved relations with the Commonwealth and Anglosphere, the risks of Brexit for Ottawa far outweigh the potential advantages.