summit seires

The 1972 summit series was instrumental improving Canadian relations with Russia, bolstering Canadian nationalism, and democracy. The summit series took place during height of the cold war Canada wanted to improve there relations with the Russian’s and didn’t want to rely on the Americans. It also bolstered Canadian nationalism because the Canadian’s new that hockey was their game and that they were better than the Russian’s even thought the Russian team was apparently unbeatable. Pierre Trudeau the president at the time used the summit series to claim the majority vote once again in the upcoming election. The summit series also proved that democracy could prevail over communism. This was proven after the Canadians were able to beat the super power Russians to win the summit series and claim hockey as Canada’s national sport.

The summit series improved Canadian relationships with Russia because prime minster Turedeau and Aleksei Kosygin thought that they could make ties if the reopened international hockey. This was true as Canada and Russia would again play each other again 2 years later in the 1974 summit series. The Canadian economy needed the United States because they became dependant on the United States for smooth trade flow. In 1971 the United States introduced the Nixon shock which made a 10%taruff on all imports. The Canadian government went into a panic. This is when prime minster Trudeau introduced the “third option”. This was a proposal that reduced trade and cultural relations between Canada and the United States. He thought it would be good to downgrade the importance of Canada and United States relationship. In 1972 speech president Nixon said that the special relationship between Canada and the united states are dead.(Nixon, January 21st,2011) Canada also didn’t want to rely on the Americans anymore because the American were not having success in recent years. They also wanted to make ties with other countries in the word one being Russia. They were able to make ties with hockey. President Trudeau and Aleksei Kosygin were the two that agreed on the summit series and this was the one of the ways Canada made relationships with other countries and made them less dependent on Russia. The summit series helped Canada to make ties with Russia and made them more independent not relying on America for help