<Li> Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development - Celina Caesar - Chavannes </Li> <P> The change of terminology from external affairs to foreign affairs recognized, albeit belatedly, a shift that had occurred many years before . At the time that the external affairs portfolio was created in 1909, Canada was a self - governing Dominion in the British Empire and did not have an independent foreign policy . Under s . 132 of the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal government had authority to conduct and implement relations with other parts of the British Empire, which were not considered foreign lands . The United Kingdom and other colonial powers still routinely divided their conduct of overseas policy into foreign affairs (e.g. the UK's Foreign Office) and domestic or colonial affairs (the Colonial Office or Dominion Office, which were later reorganized and combined into one department, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office). Diplomacy outside the Empire (e.g. between Canada and its non-Empire neighbours, the United States, Russia, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenland) were conducted by the foreign office of the United Kingdom . Informally, however, Canada had had relations with the United States in particular, with trade and other relationships pre-dating Confederation . </P> <P> The term external affairs avoided the question of whether a colony or Dominion--self - governing and hence sovereign in some respects--could, by definition, have foreign affairs . Implicitly, since the department was responsible for affairs with both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries, all external relations were of a type, even when the head of state was shared with other nations . </P> <P> Canada's management of its own foreign relations evolved over time, with key milestones including: the First World War (at the conclusion of which Canada was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and a member of the League of Nations); the Balfour Declaration; increased direct conduct of bilateral matters with the United States (where Canada had its own representatives since at least 1927); and finally, the Statute of Westminster and the Second World War . In terms of Canada's commercial relations, the first Trade Commissioner, John Short Larke, was named following a successful trade delegation to Australia led by Canada's first Minister of Trade and Commerce, Mackenzie Bowell . </P>

The department of foreign affairs trade and development canada