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Robert Wright and Lana Wylie (eds), Our Place in the Sun: Canada and Cuba in the Castro Era (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009) pb 320pp, CDN$29.95, ISBN 0802096662
Reviewed by Ken Cole
This book includes an Introduction and eleven chapters, written by 14 authors, and covers the history of Canadian-Cuban relations in the period from the revolutionary victory of the forces of the 26th July Movement led by Fidel Castro on 1 January 1959, until February 2008 when Fidel resigned as President and the National Assembly of Cuba voted his brother Raúl as his successor.
Eight Canadian Prime Ministers, in nine administrations (Pierre Trudeau was elected twice, in 1968 and 1980), have presided over what has been described as Canada's 'most celebrated' (p. 75) foreign-policy bias. Canada was the only western 'democracy' to maintain full diplomatic relations with Cuba after January 1959, and has subsequently eschewed United States initiatives to invoke regime change in Havana: and, excepting Mexico, is the...