Halibut Treaty (1923)

The Halibut Treaty was an agreement between Canada and the United States of America on the management of halibut stocks in the north Pacific. Matters of foreign policy were particularly divisive in the 1920s, notably those concerning the status and responsibilities of Canada as part of the British empire. Ratifying treaties was another important indicator of dominion autonomy, and Ernest Lapointe, minister of marine and fisheries under Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, set a precedent on 2 March 1923 by signing the Halibut Treaty with the United States without a British co-signatory.