The O. D. Skelton Memorial Lecture

Inaugurated in December 1991, this lecture series honours Oscar Douglas Skelton, a prime architect of what became Global Affairs Canada (then Department of External Affairs) and of Canadian foreign policy. The lectures encourage a scholarly examination of topics within the subject of Canada’s international relations with distinguished Canadian lecturers. The O. D. Skelton Memorial Lecture is given annually during the academic year.

About O. D. Skelton

Before becoming then prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s advisor on international relations and then his second under-secretary of state for external affairs, Mr. Skelton had been Sir John A. Macdonald Professor of Political and Economic Science and then Dean of Arts at Queen’s University. Mr. King’s choice of Mr. Skelton to succeed Sir Joseph Pope, the first under-secretary of state for external affairs, was influenced in part by an address given by Mr. Skelton to the Canadian Club in Ottawa in 1922.

As head of the Department of External Affairs for more than 15 years, Mr. Skelton helped to define a distinct Canadian foreign policy. A firm believer in appointment and promotion by merit, he was responsible for the recruitment of a remarkably able group of foreign service officers. In view of Mr. Skelton’s scholarly background and his contribution to Canadian public life, Global Affairs Canada decided to honour his memory with a public lecture series.

List of lectures and speaker biographies

• 2015 Derek Burney, "Advantage Canada: Recalibrating our Role in a Transforming World"
• 2011 Chrystia Freeland, "Finding a Place in a Rebalanced Global Economy: the New Foreign Policy Challenge"
• 2008 Norman Hillmer, "Foreign Policy and the National Interest: Why Skelton Matters"
• 2007-2008 John de Chastelain, "Jaw-Jaw Better Than War-War: Perspectives on Negotiation and the Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1994 to 2008"
• 2006 Denis Stairs, "The Menace of General Ideas in the Making and Politics of Canadian Foreign Policy"
• 2004 Michael Ignatieff, "Peace, Order and Good Government: A Foreign Policy Agenda for Canada"
• 2003 Margaret MacMillan,"Lessons from History? The Paris Peace Conference of 1919"
• 2002 Sylvia Ostry, "Globalization and the G8: Could Kananaskis Set a New Direction?"
• 2001 Louise Arbour, "Exporting Criminal Justice"
• 1998 Gwynne Dyer, "Reasons to be Cheerful: Foreign Policy in a Changing World"
• 1997 Landon Pearson, "Seen and Heard: Children's Rights as a Foreign Policy Concern"
• 1996 Yves Fortier, "Canada and the United Nations: A Half Century Partnership"
• 1995 Mitchell Sharp, "Canada's Trading Revolution"
• 1993 Robert MacNeil, "Modern Media and International Affairs"
• 1992 Maurice Strong, "Beyond Rio: A New Role for Canada"
• 1991 Allan Gotlieb, "The United States in Canadian Foreign Policy"