Canadian identity
refers to the unique culture, characteristics and condition of being Canadian, as well as the many symbols and expressions that set
Canada
and Canadians apart from other peoples and cultures of the world. Primary influences on the Canadian identity trace back to the arrival, beginning in the early seventeenth century, of
French
settlers in
Acadia
and the
St. Lawrence River Valley
, and of English, Scottish and Irish settlers in
Newfoundland
and
the Maritimes
, the
British
conquest of
New France
in 1763, the migration of
United Empire Loyalists
to
Upper Canada
and
New Brunswick
, and the ensuing dominance of French and British culture in the gradual development of both an imperial and national identity.
Throughout the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries,
First Nations
played a critical part in the development of European colonies in Canada, from their role in assisting exploration of the continent, the
fur trade
and inter-European power struggles to the creation of the
Metis
people. Carrying through the 20th century and to the present day, Canadian aboriginal art and culture continues to exert a marked influence on Canadian identity.
Today, Canada is a
multicultural society
and
constitutional protection
for policies that promote multiculturalism in lieu of a monolithic national myth based on any single ethnicity or language.
[1]
Journalist and author
Richard Gwyn
has suggested that "tolerance" has replaced "loyalty" as the touchstone of Canadian identity.
[2]
Canadians identify with the country's
institutions of health care
,
military peacekeeping
, the
national park system
, and the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
.
[3]
[4]
In 2013, more than 90 per cent of polled Canadians believed that the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
and the
national flag
were the top symbols of Canadian identity. Next highest were the
national anthem
, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
, and
ice hockey
.
[5]
The question of Canadian identity was traditionally dominated by two fundamental themes: first, the often conflicted relationship between
English Canadians
and
French Canadians
, stemming from the
Francophone
imperative for cultural and linguistic survival; secondly, the close ties between English Canadians and the
British Empire
, and the gradual political process towards complete independence from the "
mother country
". With the gradual loosening of political ties between Canada and the British Empire in the 20th century, immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean have reshaped Canadian identity, a process that continues with the ongoing settlement of large numbers of immigrants from diverse backgrounds, adding to the theme of
multiculturalism to the debate
.
[6]
[7]
[8]
Basic models
[
edit
]
In defining a Canadian identity, some distinctive characteristics that have been emphasized are:
- The
bicultural
nature of Canada; the important ways in which English?French and Protestant-Catholic relations have shaped the Canadian experience since the 1760s.
[9]
- Canada's distinctive historical experience in resisting revolution and republicanism (in contrast to the United States) leading to a lesser societal emphasis on individualism and more support for
communitarianism
and government activism, such as
wheat pools
and the
health care system
.
[10]
- The relationship to the
Westminster parliamentary system
and the
British legal system
, the
toryism
associated with the
Loyalists
, and the pre-1960 French Canadians have given Canada its ongoing collective commitment to "
peace, order, and good government
".
[10]
- The social structure of multiple ethnic groups living amongst each other whilst maintaining their identities, producing a "
cultural mosaic
" as opposed to a "
melting pot
".
[11]
- The influence of
geographical factors
(vast area, coldness,
northness
;
St. Lawrence spine
), together with the proximity of a
global superpower
, have produced in the collective Canadian psyche what
Northrop Frye
has called the
garrison mind
or
siege mentality
, and what novelist
Margaret Atwood
has argued is the Canadian preoccupation with
survival
.
[12]
For
Herschel Hardin
, because of the remarkable hold of the
siege mentality
and the concern with survival, Canada in its essentials is "a public enterprise country." According to Hardin, the "fundamental mode of Canadian life" has always been, "the un-American mechanism of redistribution as opposed to the mystic American mechanism of market rule." Most Canadians, in other words, whether on the right or left in politics, expect their governments to be actively involved in the economic and social life of the nation.
[13]
Historical development
[
edit
]
Introduction
[
edit
]
Canada's large geographic size, the presence and survival of a significant number of indigenous peoples, the conquest of one European linguistic population by another, and relatively open
immigration policy
have led to an extremely
diverse society
. The exploration of national character and regional culture is a longstanding subject of inquiry for scholars in both Canada and the United States. Baer et al. argue that "Questions of national character and regional culture have long been of interest to both Canadian and American social scientists. The Canadian literature has focussed largely on historical and structural reasons for regional distinctiveness and the possible role of regionalism in undermining a truly national Canadian character or ethos."
[14]
Indigenous people
[
edit
]
The indigenous peoples of Canada are divided among a large number of different ethnolinguistic groups, including the
Inuit
in the northern territory of
Nunavut
, the
Algonquian
language groups in eastern Canada (
Mi'kmaq
in the
Maritime Provinces
,
Abenaki
of
Quebec
and
Ojibway
of the central region), the
Iroquois
of central Canada, the
Cree
of northern Ontario, Quebec and the Great Plains, peoples speaking the
Athabaskan languages
of Canada's northwest, the
Salishan
language groups of
British Columbia
and other peoples of the Pacific coast such as the
Tsimshian
,
Haida
,
Kwakwaka'wakw
and
Nuu-chah-nulth
.
[15]
Each of the indigenous peoples developed vibrant societies with complex economies, political structures and cultural traditions that were subsequently affected profoundly by interaction with the European populations. The
Metis
are an indigenous people whose culture and identity was produced by a fusion of First Nations with the French, Irish and Scottish
fur trade
society of the north and west.
French settlement and the struggle for francophone identity in Canada
[
edit
]
From the founding by
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons
of
Port Royal
(
Annapolis Royal
) in 1605, (the beginnings of French settlement of
Acadia
) and the founding of
Quebec City
in 1608 by
Samuel de Champlain
, Canada was ruled from and settled almost exclusively by French colonists. John Ralston Saul, among others, has noted that the east?west shape of modern Canada had its origins in decisions regarding alliances with the indigenous peoples made by early French colonizers or explorers such as Champlain or
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Verendrye
. By allying with the
Algonquins
, for example, Champlain gained an alliance with the
Wyandot
or Huron of today's Ontario, and the enmity of the
Iroquois
of what is now northern
New York State
.
[16]
Although English settlement began in
Newfoundland
in 1610, and the
Hudson's Bay Company
was chartered in 1670, it was only with the
Treaty of Utrecht
in 1713 that France ceded to
Great Britain
its claims to mainland
Nova Scotia
and significant British settlement of what would become mainland Canada would begin. Even then, prior to the
American Revolution
, Nova Scotia was settled largely by
planters
from
New England
who took up lands following the
deportation of the French-speaking Acadian
population, in 1755 in an event known in French to Acadians as
Le Grand Derangement
, one of the critical events in the formation of the Canadian identity.
[17]
During the period of French hegemony over New France the term
Canadien
referred to the French-speaking inhabitants of Canada.
[
citation needed
]
The
Seven Years' War
between Great Britain and France resulted in the conquest of New France by the British in 1759 at the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham
, an event that reverberates profoundly even today in the national consciousness of Quebecers. Although there were a number of attempts made by the British authorities to assimilate the French speaking population to the English language and culture, most notably the 1840
Act of Union
that followed the seminal report of
Lord Durham
, British colonial policy for Canada on the whole was one which acknowledged and permitted the continued existence of French language and culture. Nevertheless, the efforts at assimilation of French Canadians, the fate of the French-speaking
Acadians
and the revolt of the
patriotes
in 1837 would not be forgotten by their Quebecois descendants.
Je me souviens
, (English: "I remember"), the motto of Quebec, became the watchword of the Quebecois. Determined to maintain their cultural and linguistic distinctiveness in the face of Anglophone cultural hegemony and massive immigration of English speaking people to the pre-Confederation
Province of Canada
, this survivalist determination is a cornerstone of current Quebecois identity and much of the political discourse in Quebec. The English Canadian writer and philosopher John Ralston Saul also considers the
Ultramontane
movement of
Catholicism
as playing a pivotal and highly negative role in the development of certain aspects of Quebecois identity.
[18]
British settlement in Canada: revolution, invasion, and Confederation
[
edit
]
For its part, the identity of English speaking Canada was profoundly influenced by another pivotal historic event, the American Revolution. American colonists who remained loyal to the Crown and who actively supported the British during the Revolution saw their lands and goods confiscated by the new republic at the end of the war. Some 60,000 people, known in Canada as
United Empire Loyalists
fled the
United States
or were evacuated after the war, coming to Nova Scotia and Quebec where they received land and some assistance from the British government in compensation and recognition for having taken up arms in defence of King
George III
and British interests. This population formed the nucleus for two modern Canadian provinces?Ontario and New Brunswick?and had a profound demographic, political and economic influence on Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island
and Quebec. Conservative in politics, distrustful or even hostile towards Americans, republicanism, and especially American republicanism,
[19]
this group of people marked the British of
British North America
as a distinctly identifiable cultural entity for many generations, and Canadian commentators continue to assert that the legacy of the Loyalists still plays a vital role in English Canadian identity. According to the author and political commentator
Richard Gwyn
while "[t]he British connection has long vanished...it takes only a short dig down to the sedimentary layer once occupied by the Loyalists to locate the sources of a great many contemporary Canadian convictions and conventions."
[20]
Canada was twice invaded by armed forces from the United States during the American Revolution and the
War of 1812
. The first invasion occurred in 1775, and succeeded in capturing
Montreal
and other towns in Quebec before being
repelled
at Quebec City by a combination of British troops and local militiamen. During this invasion, the French-speaking
Canadiens
assisted both the invaders from the United Colonies and the defending British. The War of 1812 also saw the invasion of American forces into what was then
Upper
and
Lower Canada
, and important British victories at
Queenston Heights
,
Lundy's Lane
and
Crysler's Farm
. The British were assisted again by local militia, this time not only the
Canadiens
, but also the descendants of the Loyalists who had arrived barely a generation earlier. The Americans however captured control of Lake Erie, cutting off what is today western Ontario; they killed
Tecumseh
and dealt the Indian allies a decisive defeat from which they never recovered. The War of 1812 has been called "in many respects a war of independence for Canada".
[21]
The years following the War of 1812 were marked by heavy immigration from Great Britain to the Canadas and, to a lesser degree, the Maritime Provinces, adding new British elements (English, Scottish and Protestant Irish) to the pre-existing English-speaking populations. During the same period immigration of
Catholic Irish
brought large numbers of settlers who had no attachment, and often a great hostility, toward Great Britain. The hostility of other groups to the autocratic colonial administrations that were not based on democratic principles of
responsible government
, principally the French-speaking population of Lower Canada and newly arrived American settlers with no particular ties to Great Britain, were to manifest themselves in the short-lived but symbolically powerful
Rebellions of 1837?1838
. The term "Canadian", once describing a francophone population, was adopted by English-speaking residents of the Canadas as well, marking the process of converting 'British' immigrants into 'Canadians.'
[22]
The merger of the two
Canadas
in 1840, with political power divided evenly between the former Lower and Upper Canadas, created a political structure that eventually exacerbated tensions between the French and English-speaking populations and which would prove an enduring feature of Canadian identity. As the population of English-speaking and largely Protestant Canada West grew to surpass that of majority French-speaking Catholic Canada East, the population of Canada West began to feel that its interests were becoming subservient to the francophone population of Canada East.
George Brown
, founder of
The Globe
newspaper (forerunner of today's
The Globe and Mail
) and a
Father of Confederation
wrote that the position of Canada West had become "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
[23]
For its part, the French Canadians distrusted the growing anti-Catholic 'British' population of Canada West and sought a structure that could provide at least some control over its own affairs through a Provincial legislature founded on principles of
responsible government
.
The
union
of the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a federation in 1867 drew on all of the primary aspects of the Canadian identity: loyalty to Britain (there would be self-governance under a federal parliament, but no rupture from British institutions), limited but significant home rule for a French-speaking majority in the new Province of Quebec (and a longed for solution to English-French tensions), and a collaboration of British North Americans in order to resist the pull and the possible military threat from the United States. The republic to the south had just finished its
Civil War
as a powerful and united nation with little affection for Britain or its neglected colonies strung along its northern border. So great was the perceived threat that even
Queen Victoria
thought, prior to Confederation, that it would be "impossible" for Britain to retain Canada.
[24]
In their search for an early identity,
English Canadians
relied heavily on loyalty and attachment to the British Empire, an attitude shaped by the British role in the building of Canada, as evidenced in the lyrics of the informal anthem
The Maple Leaf Forever
and attitudes of hatred towards French and Irish Canadians. John Ralston Saul sees in the influence of the
Orange Order
the counterpart of the Ultramontane movement among French Canadians, leading certain groups of English Canadian Protestants to provoke persecution of the Metis and suppress or resist francophone rights.
[25]
Early dominion
[
edit
]
After Confederation, Canada became caught up in settlement of the west and extending the dominion to the Pacific Ocean.
British Columbia
joined Confederation in 1871. Residents of a
British colony
specifically established to forestall American territorial aspirations in the
Fraser Valley
, British Columbians were no strangers to the implications of the American doctrine of
Manifest Destiny
nor the economic attractions of the United States. The construction of the
Canadian Pacific Railway
, promised to British Columbia as an inducement to join the new dominion, became a powerful and tangible symbol of the nation's identity, linking the provinces and territories together from east to west in order to counteract the inevitable economic and cultural pull from the south.
The settlement of the west also brought to the fore the tensions between the English and French-speaking populations of Canada. The
Red River Rebellion
, led by
Louis Riel
, sought to defend the interests of French-speaking Metis against English-speaking Protestant settlers from Ontario. The controversial execution of
Thomas Scott
, a Protestant from Ontario, on Riel's orders and the furor that followed divided the new dominion along linguistic and religious lines. While
Manitoba
was created as a bilingual province in 1870 as a solution to the issue, the tensions remained, and would surface again in the
North-West Rebellion
in the 1880s, when Riel led another rebellion against
Ottawa
.
CHILD EMIGRATION TO CANADA
The attention of the Dominion Government has been drawn to the fact that the children sent to Canada from England are street waifs and workhouse paupers, and that the professional philanthropists engaged in the work are largely prompted by mercenary and not charitable motives. A demand will be made that parliament should investigate the matter before voting any money to promote this kind of immigration.
The Star, 18 April 1891
[26]
From the mid to late 19th century Canada had a policy of assisting immigrants from Europe, including city people and an estimated 100,000 unwanted "
Home Children
" from Britain. The modern descendants of these children have been estimated at five
million
, contributing to Canada's identity as the "country of the abandoned".
[27]
Offers of free land attracted farmers from Central and Eastern Europe to the prairies,
[28]
[29]
as well as large numbers of Americans who settled to a great extent in
Alberta
. Several immigrant groups settled in sufficient densities to create communities of a sufficient size to exert an influence on Canadian identity, such as
Ukrainian Canadians
. Canada began to see itself as a country that needed and welcomed people from countries besides its traditional sources of immigrants, accepting
Germans
,
Poles
,
Dutch
, and Scandinavians in large numbers before the
First World War
.
At the same time, there were concerns regarding immigration from Asian by English Canadians on the Pacific coast. At the time, the Canadian identity did not include non-Europeans. While inexpensive Chinese labour had been needed to complete the transcontinental railway, the completion of the railway led to questions of what to do with the workers who were now no longer needed. Further Chinese immigration was limited and then banned by a series of restrictive and racially motivated
dominion statutes
. The
Komagata Maru incident
in 1914 revealed overt hostility towards would-be immigrants, mainly
Sikhs
from India, who attempted to land in
Vancouver
.
20th century
[
edit
]
The main crisis regarding Canadian identity came in
World War I
. Canadians of British heritage were strongly in favour of the war effort, while those of French heritage, especially in
Quebec
, showed far less interest. A series of political upheavals ensued, especially the
Conscription Crisis of 1917
. Simultaneously, the role of immigrants as loyal Canadians was contested, with large numbers of men of
German
or
Ukrainian
heritage temporarily stripped of voting rights or incarcerated in camps. The war helped define separate political identities for the two groups, and permanently alienated Quebec and the Conservative Party.
[30]
During this period, World War I helped to establish a separate Canadian identity among Anglophoners, especially through the military experiences of the
Battle of Vimy Ridge
and the
Battle of Passchendaele
and the intense homefront debates on patriotism.
[31]
(A
similar crisis
, though much less intense, erupted in World War II.)
In the 1920s, the Dominion of Canada achieved greater independence from Britain, notably in the
Statute of Westminster
in 1931. It remained part of the larger
Commonwealth
but played an independent role in the
League of Nations
. As Canada became increasingly independent and
sovereign
, its primary foreign relationship and point of reference gradually moved to the United States, the superpower with whom it shared a long border and major economic, social and cultural relationships.
The Statute of Westminster also gave Canada
its own monarchy
, which remains in
personal union
with
14 other countries
of the
Commonwealth of Nations
. However, overt associations with Britain wound down after the end of the
Second World War
, when Canada established its own citizenship laws in 1947. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a number of
symbols of the Canadian Crown
were either removed completely (such as the
Royal Mail
) or changed (such as the
Royal Arms of Canada
), while others were created (for example, the
monarch's royal standard
).
In the 1960s, Quebec experienced the
Quiet Revolution
to modernize society from traditional Christian teachings.
Quebecois
nationalists demanded independence and tensions rose until violence erupted during the 1970
October Crisis
. In 1976, the
Parti Quebecois
was elected to power in Quebec, with a nationalist vision that included securing French linguistic rights in the province and the pursuit of some form of
sovereignty for Quebec
, leading to a referendum in Quebec in 1980 on the question of
sovereignty-association
, which was turned down by 59% of voters. At the
patriation
of the
Canadian constitution
in 1982, the Quebec Premier did not agree to the amendment; this led to two unsuccessful attempts to modify the constitution so it would have the Quebec Cabinet's assent and another referendum on Quebec independence in 1995, which lost by a slim majority of 50.6%.
In 1965, Canada adopted the
maple leaf flag
, after considerable debate and misgivings on the part of a large number of English Canadians. Two years later, the country celebrated the
centennial of Confederation
and an
international exposition
in Montreal.
Legislative restrictions on immigration that had favoured British and other European immigrants were removed in the 1960s. By the 1970s immigrants increasingly came from
India
,
Hong Kong
, the
Caribbean
, and
Vietnam
. Post-war immigrants of all backgrounds tended to settle in the major urban centres, particularly
Toronto
,
Montreal
, and
Vancouver
.
During his tenure in the office (1968?1979, 1980?1984), Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau
made social and cultural change his political goal for Canada, including the pursuit of an official policy on
bilingualism
and plans for significant constitutional change. The west, particularly the oil and gas-producing province of Alberta, opposed many of the policies emanating from central Canada, with the
National Energy Program
creating considerable antagonism and growing western alienation.
Modern times
[
edit
]
As for the role of history in national identity, the books of
Pierre Berton
and television series like
Canada: A People's History
have done much to spark the popular interest of Canadians in their history. Some commentators, such as Cohen, criticize the overall lack of attention paid by Canadians to their own history, noting a disturbing trend to ignore the broad history in favour of narrow focus on specific regions or groups.
It isn't just the schools, the museums and the government that fail us. It is also the professional historians, their books and periodicals. As J.L. Granatstein and Michael Bliss have argued, academic historians in Canada have stopped writing political and national history. They prefer to write labour history, women's history, ethnic history, and regional history, among others, often freighted with a sense of grievance or victimhood. This kind of history has its place, of course, but our history has become so specialized, so segmented, and so narrow that we are missing the national story in a country that has one and needs to hear it.
[32]
Much of the debate over contemporary Canadian identity is argued in political terms, and defines Canada as a country defined by its government policies, which are thought to reflect deeper cultural values. To the political philosopher
Charles Blattberg
, Canada should be conceived as a civic or political community, a community of citizens, one that contains many other kinds of communities within it. These include not only communities of ethnic, regional, religious, civic (the provincial and municipal governments) and civil associational sorts, but also national communities. Blattberg thus sees Canada as a multinational country and so asserts that it contains a number of nations within it. Aside from the various aboriginal First Nations, there is also the nation of francophone Quebecers, that of the anglophones who identify with English Canadian culture, and perhaps that of the Acadians.
[33]
In keeping with this, it is often asserted that Canadian government policies such as
publicly funded health care
, higher taxation to distribute wealth, outlawing
capital punishment
, strong efforts to eliminate
poverty in Canada
, an emphasis on
multiculturalism
, imposing strict
gun control
, leniency in regard to drug use, and most recently legalizing
same-sex marriage
make their country politically and culturally different from the United States.
[35]
In a poll that asked what institutions made Canada feel most proud about their country, number one was
health care
, number two was the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, and number three was
peacekeeping
.
[36]
In a CBC contest to name "
The Greatest Canadian
", the three highest ranking in descending order were the
social democratic
politician and
father of medicare
Tommy Douglas
, the legendary cancer activist
Terry Fox
, and the
Liberal
prime minister
Pierre Trudeau
, responsible for instituting Canada's official policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism, which suggested that their voters valued
left-of-centre
political leanings and community involvement.
Most of Canada's recent
prime ministers
have been from Quebec, and thus have tried to improve relations with the province with a number of tactics, notably
official bilingualism
which required the provision of a number of services in both official languages and, among other things, required that all commercial packaging in Canada be printed in French and English. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's first legislative push was to implement the
Royal Commission on Bilingualism
within the
Official Languages Act
in 1969. Again, while this bilingualism is a notable feature to outsiders, the plan has been less than warmly embraced by many English Canadians some of whom resent the extra administrative costs and the requirement of many key federal public servants to be fluently bilingual.
[37]
Despite the widespread introduction of French-language classes throughout Canada, very few anglophones are truly bilingual outside of Quebec. Pierre Trudeau in regards to uniformity stated:
Uniformity is neither desirable nor possible in a country the size of Canada. We should not even be able to agree upon the kind of Canadian to choose as a model, let alone persuade most people to emulate it. There are few policies potentially more disastrous for Canada than to tell all Canadians that they must be alike. There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all-Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.
[38]
In 2013, more than 90 percent of polled Canadians believed that the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
and the national flag were the top symbols of Canadian identity.
[39]
As Professor
Alan Cairns
noted about the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
, "the initial federal government premise was on developing a pan-Canadian identity"'.
[40]
Pierre Trudeau himself later wrote in his
Memoirs (1993)
that "Canada itself" could now be defined as a "society where all people are equal and where they share some fundamental values based upon freedom", and that all Canadians could identify with the values of liberty and equality.
[41]
Migration to Canada
[
edit
]
Canada was the home for 'American' British
Loyalists
during and following the American Revolution, making much of Canada distinct in its unwillingness to embrace republicanism and populist democracy during the nineteenth century. Canada was also the destination for slaves from America via the
Underground Railroad
(the 'North Star' as heralded by
Martin Luther King Jr.
); Canada was the refuge for American
Vietnam draft-dodgers
during the turbulent 1960s.
In response to a declining
birth rate
, Canada has increased the
per capita
immigration rate to one of the
highest in the world
.
Outsider perceptions
[
edit
]
A very common expression of Canadian identity is to ridicule American ignorance of things Canadian.
[42]
During his years with
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
, comic
Rick Mercer
produced a recurring segment,
Talking to Americans
.
Petty says, the segment "was extraordinarily popular and was initiated by viewer demand."
[42]
Mercer would pose as a journalist in an American city and ask passers-by for their opinions on a fabricated Canadian news story. Some of the "stories" for which he solicited comment included the legalization of staplers, the coronation of
King Svend
, the border dispute between Quebec and
Chechnya
, the campaign against the Toronto Polar Bear Hunt, and the reconstruction of the historic "
Peter Mann's Bridge
". During the
2000 election
in the
United States
, Mercer successfully staged a
Talking to Americans
segment in which presidential candidate
George W. Bush
gratefully accepted news of his endorsement by Canadian Prime Minister "Jean
Poutine
".
[43]
[44]
While Canadians may dismiss comments that they do not find appealing or stereotypes that are patently ridiculous, Andrew Cohen believes that there is a value to considering what foreigners have to say: "Looking at Canadians through the eyes of foreigners, we get a sense of how they see us. They say so much about us: that we are nice, hospitable, modest, blind to our achievements. That we are obedient, conservative, deferential, colonial and complex, particularly so. That we are fractious, envious, geographically impossible and politically improbable."
[45]
Cohen refers in particular to the analyses of the French historian
Andre Siegfried
,
[46]
the Irish born journalist and novelist
Brian Moore
[47]
or the Canadian-born American journalist Andrew H. Malcolm.
[48]
French Canadians and identity in English Canada
[
edit
]
The Canadian philosopher and writer
John Ralston Saul
has expressed the view that the French fact in Canada is central to Canadian, and particularly to English Canadian identity:
It cannot be repeated enough that Quebec and, more precisely, francophone Canada is at the very heart of the Canadian mythology. I don't mean that it alone constitutes the heart, which is after all a complex place. But it is at the heart and no multiple set of bypass operations could rescue that mythology if Quebec were to leave. Separation is therefore a threat of death to anglophone Canada's whole sense of itself, of its self-respect, of its role as a constituent part of a nation, of the nature of the relationship between citizens."
[49]
Many Canadians believe that the relationship between the English and French languages is a central or defining aspect of the Canadian experience. Canada's
Official Languages Commissioner
(the federal government official charged with monitoring the two languages) has stated, "[I]n the same way that race is at the core of what it means to be American and at the core of an American experience and class is at the core of British experience, I think that language is at the core of Canadian experience."
[50]
Aboriginal Canadians and Canadian identity
[
edit
]
Saul argues that Canadian identity is founded not merely on the relationship built of French/English pragmatic compromises and cooperation but rests in fact on a triangular foundation which includes, significantly, Canada's aboriginal peoples.
[51]
From the reliance of French and later English explorers on Native knowledge of the country, to the development of the indigenous Metis society on the Prairies which shaped what would become Canada, and the military response to their resistance to annexation by Canada,
[52]
indigenous peoples were originally partners and players in laying the foundations of Canada. Individual aboriginal leaders, such as
Joseph Brant
or
Tecumseh
have long been viewed as heroes in Canada's early battles with the United States and Saul identifies
Gabriel Dumont
as the real leader of the
North-West Rebellion
, although overshadowed by the better-known
Louis Riel
.
[53]
While the dominant culture tended to dismiss or marginalize First Nations to a large degree, individual artists such as the British Columbia painter
Emily Carr
, who depicted the
totem poles and other carvings
of the
Northwest Coast peoples
, helped turn the then largely ignored and undervalued culture of the first peoples into iconic images "central to the way Canadians see themselves".
[54]
First Nations art and iconography are now routinely integrated into public space intended to represent Canada, such as
The Great Canoe"
, a sculpture by Haida artist
Bill Reid
in the courtyard of the
Canadian embassy
in
Washington, D.C.
, and its copy,
The Spirit of Haida Gwaii
, at the apex of the main hall in the
Vancouver Airport
.
War of 1812
[
edit
]
The War of 1812 is often celebrated in Ontario as a British victory for what would become Canada in 1867. The Canadian government spent $28 million on three years of bicentennial events, exhibits, historic sites, re-enactments, and a new national monument.
[55]
The official goal was to make Canadians aware that:
- Canada would not exist had the American invasion of 1812?15 been successful.
- The end of the war laid the foundation for Confederation and the emergence of Canada as a free and independent nation.
- Under the Crown, Canada’s society retained its linguistic and ethnic diversity, in contrast to the greater conformity demanded by the American Republic.
[56]
In a 2012 poll, 25% of all Canadians ranked their victory in the War of 1812 as the second most important part of their identity after free health care (53%).
[57]
Canadian historians in recent decades look at the war as a defeat for the First Nations of Canada, and also for the merchants of Montreal (who lost the fur trade of the Michigan-Minnesota area).
[58]
The British had a long-standing goal of building a pro-British
Indian barrier state
in the American Midwest.
[59]
[60]
They demanded a neutral Indian state at the peace conference in 1814 but failed to gain any of it because they had lost control of the region in the
Battle of Lake Erie
and the
Battle of the Thames
in 1813, where
Tecumseh
was killed. The British then abandoned their Indian allies south of the lakes. The royal elite of (what is now) Ontario gained much more power in the aftermath and used that power to repel the idea of American republicanism, especially in the areas of southern Ontario settled by American immigrants. Many of those settlers returned to the states and were replaced by immigrants from Britain who were imperial-minded.
[61]
W. L. Morton
says the war was a "stalemate" but the Americans "did win the peace negotiations."
[62]
Arthur Ray says the war made "matters worse for the native people" as they lost military and political power.
[63]
Bumsted says the war was a stalemate, but regarding the Indians "was a victory for the American expansionists."
[64]
Thompson and Randall say "the War of 1812's real losers were the Native peoples who had fought as Britain's ally."
[65]
On the other hand, the "1812 Great Canadian Victory Party will bring the War of 1812...to life," promised the sponsors of a festival in Toronto in November 2009.
[66]
Multiculturalism and identity
[
edit
]
Multiculturalism and inter-ethnic relations in Canada is relaxed and tolerant, allowing ethnic or linguistic particularism to exist unquestioned. In metropolitan areas such as
Toronto
and
Vancouver
, there is often a strong sense that multiculturalism is a normal and respectable expression of being Canadian. Canada is also considered a mosaic because of the multi-culturalism.
Supporters of Canadian multiculturalism will also argue that cultural appreciation of ethnic and religious diversity promotes a greater willingness to tolerate political differences, and multiculturalism is often cited as one of Canada's significant accomplishments and a key distinguishing element of Canadian identity. Richard Gwyn has suggested that "tolerance" has replaced "loyalty" as the touchstone of Canadian identity.
[67]
On the other hand, critics of Canada's multiculturalism argue that the country's "timid" attitude towards the assimilation of immigrants has actually weakened, not strengthened Canada's national identity through factionalism. Columnist and author Richard Gwyn expresses concern that Canada's sense of self may become so weak that it might vanish altogether.
[68]
The indulgent attitude taken towards cultural differences is perhaps a side effect of the vexed histories of French-English and Aboriginal-settler relations, which have created a need for a civic national identity, as opposed to one based on some homogenous cultural ideal.
[
citation needed
]
On the other hand, concerns have been raised of the danger that "ethnic nationalism will trump civic nationalism"
[69]
and that Canada will leap "from colony to post-national cosmopolitan" without giving Canadians a fair chance of ever finding a centre of gravity or certain sense of Canadian identity.
[70]
[71]
For John Ralston Saul, Canada's approach of not insisting on a single national mythology or identity is not necessarily a sign of the country's weakness, but rather its greatest success,
[72]
signalling a rejection of or evolution from the European mono-cultural concept of a national identity to something far more "soft" and less complex:
The essential characteristic of the Canadian public mythology is its complexity. To the extent that it denies the illusion of simplicity, it is a reasonable facsimile of reality. That makes it a revolutionary reversal of the standard nation-state myth. To accept our reality?the myth of complexity?is to live out of sync with elites in other countries, particularly those in the business and academic communities.
[73]
In January 2007,
Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
advised the creation of a new sub-ministerial cabinet portfolio with the title
Canadian Identity
for the first time in Canadian history, naming
Jason Kenney
to the position of
Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity
.
The role of Canadian social policy and identity
[
edit
]
Critics of the idea of a fundamentally "liberal Canada" such as
David Frum
argue that the Canadian drive towards a more noticeably leftist political stance is largely due to the increasing role that
Quebec
plays in the Canadian government (three of the last five elected Prime Ministers have been
Quebecers
, four if one includes Ontarian-born Paul Martin). Quebec historically was the most conservative, religious and traditional part of Canada. Since the
Quiet Revolution
of the 1960s, however, it has become the most secular and
social democratic
region of Canada. However, it is noteworthy that many Western provinces (particularly
Saskatchewan
and
British Columbia
) also have reputations as supporting leftist and social democratic policies. For example, Saskatchewan is one of the few provinces (all in the West) to reelect social democratic governments and is the cradle of the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
and its successor the
New Democratic Party
. Much of the energy of the early Canadian feminist movement occurred in
Manitoba
.
By contrast, the Conservative provincial government of Alberta has frequently quarrelled with federal administrations perceived to be dominated by "eastern liberal elites."
[74]
Part of this is due to what Albertans feel were federal intrusions on provincial jurisdictions such as the
National Energy Program
and other attempts to 'interfere' with Albertan oil resources.
Distinctly Canadian
[
edit
]
- In 1971,
Peter Gzowski
of
CBC Radio
's
This Country in the Morning
held a competition whose goal was to compose the conclusion to the phrase: "As Canadian as..." The winning entry was "... possible, under the circumstances." It was sent in to the program by Heather Scott.
[75]
- Pierre Berton
, a Canadian journalist and novelist, has been attributed with the quote "A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe without tipping it", although Berton himself denied that he ever actually said or wrote this.
[76]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
p. 8.
- ^
Gwyn, Richard J. (2008).
John A: The Man Who Made Us
. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 265.
ISBN
978-0-679-31476-9
.
- ^
The Environics Institute (2010).
"Focus Canada (Final Report)"
(PDF)
. Queen's University. p. 4 (PDF page 8). Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on February 4, 2016
. Retrieved
December 12,
2015
.
- ^
"Exploring Canadian values"
(PDF)
. Nanos Research. October 2016. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on April 5, 2017
. Retrieved
February 1,
2017
.
- ^
"The Daily ? Canadian identity, 2013"
.
www.statcan.gc.ca
. October 2015
. Retrieved
2015-10-01
.
- ^
John Ralston Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin: Canada at the End of the 20th Century,
Toronto: Viking Canada, 1997, p. 439
- ^
Philip Resnick
,
The European Roots of Canadian Identity
, Peterborough: Broadview Press Ltd, 2005 p. 63
- ^
Roy McGregor,
Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and Its People
, Toronto: Viking Canada, 2007
- ^
"Biculturalism",
The Canadian Encyclopedia
(2010) online
- ^
a
b
Lipset (1990)
- ^
Magocsi, (1999)
- ^
Margaret Atwood,
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Lieterature
, Toronto: House of Anansi Press Limited, p. 32.
- ^
The typology is based on George A. Rawlyk, "Politics, Religion, and the Canadian Experience: A Preliminary Probe," in Mark A. Noll, ed.
Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the 1980s.
1990. pp 259-60.
- ^
Baer, Grabb, and Johnston, "National character, regional culture, and the values of Canadians and Americans." (1993) p 13.
- ^
This list is not an exhaustive description of all
aboriginal peoples in Canada
.
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
, p. 161
- ^
Saul describes the event as "one of the most disturbing" of Canada's "real tragedies", Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
, p. 31
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
, p 32 quote: "The Ultramontanes took French Canada off a relatively normal track of political and social evolution...The infection of healthy nationalism with a sectarianism that can still be felt in the negative nationalists was one of their accomplishments.
- ^
see MacGregor,
Canadians
, at p. 62
- ^
Richard Gwyn
,
John A: The Man Who Made Us
, 2007, Random House of Canada Ltd., p. 367
- ^
Northrop Frye,
Divisions on a Ground: Essays on Canadian Culture
, 1982: House of Anansi Press, p. 65.
- ^
See for example
Susanna Moodie
,
Roughing It in the Bush
, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Limited, 1970, p. 31: quote: "British mothers of Canadian sons!?learn to feel for their country the same enthusiasm which fills your hearts when thinking of the glory of your own. Teach them to love Canada...make your children proud of the land of their birth."
- ^
letter from George Brown, cited in Richard Gwyn,
John A: The Man Who Made Us
, p. 143.
- ^
Prior to Confederation, Queen Victoria remarked on "...the impossibility of our being able to hold Canada, but we must struggle for it; and by far the best solution would be to let it go as an independent kingdom under an English prince." quoted in Stacey, C.P.
British Military Policy in the Era of Confederation
, CHA Annual Report and Historical Papers 13 (1934), p. 25.
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
p. 32
- ^
Anon (18 April 1891). "Child emigration to Canada".
The Star
.
St Peter Port
, England.
- ^
MacGregor, Canadians, p. 231
- ^
"Pioneers Head West"
.
CBC News
.
- ^
Civilization.ca - Advertising for immigrants to western Canada - Introduction
- ^
J. L. Granatstein,
Broken promises: A history of conscription in Canada
(1977)
- ^
Mackenzie (2005)
- ^
Cohen,
The Unfinished Canadian
, p. 84
- ^
Blattberg,
Shall We Dance? A Patriotic Politics for Canada
, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.
- ^
CIHI p.119
- ^
Bricker, Darrell; Wright, John (2005).
What Canadians think-- about almost-- everything
. Doubleday Canada. pp. 8?23.
ISBN
0-385-65985-7
.
- ^
The Environics Institute (2010).
"Focus Canada (Final Report) - Queen's University"
(PDF)
. Queen's University. p. 7. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on February 4, 2016
. Retrieved
December 12,
2015
.
- ^
Sandford F. Borins.
The Language of the Skies: The Bilingual Air Traffic Control Conflict in Canada
(1983) p. 244
- ^
Hines, Pamela (August 2018).
The Trumping of America: A Wake Up Call to the Free World
. FriesenPress. p. 180.
ISBN
978-1-5255-0934-6
.
-Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as cited in The Essential Trudeau, ed. Ron Graham. (pp.16 ? 20)
- ^
"The Daily ? Canadian identity, 2013"
.
www.statcan.gc.ca
. Retrieved
2015-10-01
.
- ^
Saunders, Philip (April 2002).
"The Charter at 20"
.
CBC News Online
.
CBC/Radio-Canada
. Archived from
the original
on March 7, 2006
. Retrieved
March 17,
2006
.
- ^
Trudeau, P.E. (1993).
Memoirs
. Memoirs. McClelland & Stewart. p. 323.
ISBN
978-0-7710-8588-8
.
- ^
a
b
Sheila Petty, et al.
Canadian cultural poesis: essays on Canadian culture
(2005) p. 58
- ^
Jonathan A. Gray, et al.
Satire TV: politics and comedy in the post-network era
(2009) p 178
- ^
John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall,
Canada and the United States: ambivalent allies
(2002) p. 311
- ^
Cohen p. 48
- ^
Andre Siegfried,
Canada: An International Power; New and Revised Edition
, London: Jonathan Cape, 1949 quoted in Cohen, at pp. 35-37. Siegfried noted, among other things, the stark distinction between the identities of French and English-speaking Canadians.
- ^
Brian Moore,
Canada
. New York: Time-Life Books, 1963, quoted in Cohen,
The Unfinished Canadian
at pp. 31-33, commenting on the lack of a hero culture in Canada: "There are no heroes in the wilderness. Only fools take risks."
- ^
Andrew H. Malcolm,
The Canadians: A Probing Yet Affectionate Look at the Land and the People
Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd., 1985, quoted in Cohen,
The Unfinished Canadian
at pp. 44 to 47. "Canadians always seemed to be apologizing for something. It was so ingrained."
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
, p. 293
- ^
Official Languages Commissioner
Graham Fraser
is quoted in the
Hill Times
, August 31, 2009, p. 14.
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
p. 88.
- ^
Saul
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
at p. 91
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
p. 93
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
p. 41.
- ^
Jasper Trautsch, "Review of Whose War of 1812? Competing Memories of the Anglo-American Conflict,"
Reviews in History
(review no. 1387)
2013; Revise 2014
, accessed: 10 December 2015
- ^
Government of Canada,
"The War of 1812, Historical Overview, Did You Know?"
Archived
2015-11-20 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Trautsch, "Review of Whose War of 1812? Competing Memories of the Anglo-American Conflict"
- ^
"The Indians and the fur merchants of Montreal had lost in the end," says Randall White,
Ontario: 1610-1985
p. 75
- ^
Dwight L. Smith, "A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea"
Northwest Ohio Quarterly
1989 61(2-4): 46-63
- ^
Francis M. Carroll (2001).
A Good and Wise Measure: The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842
. U of Toronto Press. p.
24
.
- ^
Fred Landon,
Western Ontario and the American Frontier
(1941) p. 44; see also Gerald M. Craig,
Upper Canada: The Formative Years, 1784-1841
(1963)
- ^
Morton,
Kingdom of Canada
1969 pp 206-7
- ^
Arthur Ray in Craig Brown ed.
Illustrated History of Canada
(2000) p 102.
- ^
J. M. Bumsted,
Peoples of Canada
(2003) 1:244-45
- ^
John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall,
Canada and the United States
(2008) p. 23
- ^
There is no mention of the historians in the announcement of
"Great 1812 Canadian Victory Party"
- ^
Gwyn,
The Man Who Made Us What We Are
, p. 365.
- ^
Richard Gwyn,
Nationalism Without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian
, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996
- ^
Cohen,
The Unfinished Canadian
p. 162
- ^
Cohen,
The Unfinished Canadian
pp. 163-164
- ^
See also: Resnick, quote: "But let us not make diversity a substitute for broader aspects of national identity or turn multiculturalism into a shibboleth because we are unwilling to reaffirm underlying values that make Canada what it has become. And those values, I repeat again, are largely European in their derivation, on both the English-speaking and French?speaking sides." at p. 64.
- ^
Saul, p. 8.
- ^
Saul,
Reflections of a Siamese Twin
, p. 9.
- ^
Panizza 2005
- ^
"On the origin of an aphorism", PETER GZOWSKI, 24 May 1996,
The Globe and Mail
, page A15
- ^
"#AsCanadianAs 'making love in a canoe'? Not so fast"
.
CBC News
, June 21, 2013.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Cohen, Andrew (2008).
The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are
. Emblem ed.
ISBN
978-0-7710-2286-9
.
- Studin, Irvin (2006).
What is a Canadian?: forty-three thought-provoking responses
. Marks & Spencer.
ISBN
978-0-7710-8321-1
.
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ISBN
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.
- Adams, Michael.
Fire and Ice
(2004)
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(1998)
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(1991),
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(1970).
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(2003)
Shall We Dance? A Patriotic Politics for Canada
. McGill-Queen's University Press.
ISBN
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.
- John Bartlet Brebner
,
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(1945)
- Breton, Raymond. "The production and allocation of symbolic resources: an analysis of the linguistic and ethnocultural fields in Canada."
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1984 21:123-44.
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(2004), on foreign affairs
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The Maple Leaf Forever
(1977), essays by historian
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(2002)
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. Douglas & McIntyre.
ISBN
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.
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[1]
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.
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(2007)
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(2005)
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(2005)
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(1966)
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The Metis of Manitoba: Reformulation of an ethnic identity
(1978)
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(1967)
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(1994)
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(1990) Second Edition
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"Current State, Future Directions: Canada - U.S. Relations" by Pamela Wallin (Canada’s Consul General to New York); April 28, 2003
Archived
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(1998)
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(1998)
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Dreams and reality: Polish Canadian identities
(1984)
- Нохрин И.М.
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ISBN
978-1-105-76379-3
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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