Despite periodic instances of tension and disagreement, Ottawa has leaned heavily on its relationship with Washington to anchor its foreign policy throughout the postwar era. The bipolar Soviet-American standoff provided Canada with an opportunity to entrench itself within the US-led Western bloc for security purposes. The Cold War’s unipolar aftermath further deepened the logic of Canadian dependence on the United States – not only in economic terms following the advent of free trade, but also geopolitically and psychologically as Washington sought to expand the reaches of the Western-led liberal international order across the globe.