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Canadian nationalism

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Canadian nationalism is a loose term which has been applied to movements of several different types which promote specifically Canadian interests over those of other countries, notably the United Kingdom and the United States. It has also been applied to movements promoting pride in the nation, race, culture, heritage, general values or traditions of Canada.

Most Canadian nationalists today are closer to the mainstream Left and oppose the so-called Americanization of Canadian culture. Some right-wing nationalists, however, put more emphasis on preserving Canada's general Christian heritage. What all Canadian nationalists have in common is an interest in:

  • preservation of national unity
  • preservation of economic independence
  • preservation of political independence
  • preservation of generally accepted Canadian values

- Or, in general the overall protection of Canadian sovereignty

Cultural Nationalism in Canada:

Canada's culture like the cultures of other western nations has primarily European roots, Canadian customs and values (as well as heritage) are derived mainly from Britain, France, Ireland and Canada's First Nations (Aboriginal Canadians). All together more than 54% of Canadians are of either pure British, Irish or French descent with a little over a quarter of the population being of mixed origin. Most of Canada's traditions and customs although have uniquely evolved in many ways over the centuries have their origins mainly in Anglo-Saxon, Francophone and Celtic customs and traditions.

Though Canada's culture remains unique, a strong British influence is definitely noticeable from the grammar, pronunciation and spelling of Canadian English which is close to identical with British English to British traditions and customs which are practised and considered to be Canadian customs, to the political and legal systems which all borrow heavily from the British, the French and even the Aboriginals. Canadian culture also has very deep Celtic roots, especially in the Maritime or Atlantic provinces.

In Nova Scotia there are still around 10 thousand fluent Scottish Gaelic speakers, Canadian music with heavy Irish and Scottish influences is always popular and can be heard throughout the east (and in the rest of the nation to a lesser extent), the different Maritime accents mirror the brogues of Scotland and Ireland and up until the 19th century there were still large numbers of monolingual Irish Gaelic speakers in Newfoundland and Scottish Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia, especially on Cape Breton Island, which today has a Gaelic language College, and what is considered to be its own Canadian dialect of Scottish Gaelic.

In Quebec of course Canadian culture, though shares some strong similarities with the rest of the nation, is very unique because of its French origins and character. In Quebec Napoleonic law is used instead of the Canadianized British Common Law which is used elsewhere, both French and British holidays are celebrated and more than 70% of the province's population use French as their first language. Certain Quebec cultural nationalists in the past and today have argued for separation from the rest of Canada due to Quebec's cultural and linguistic uniqueness, but this proposal was defeated in 1980 and 1995 by the people of Quebec when referendums where held on the issue and Quebeckers voted in favour of staying with the rest of Canada. Despite the advocation of separation or sovereignty by a large number of Quebec nationalists, many other Quebecois nationalists have remained strong federalists committed to Quebec remaining within a united Canada.

Large Francophone communities also exist outside of Quebec and contribute generally to Canadian culture. Both Ontario and New Brunswick have the largest French speaking populations, in New Brunswick most French-Canadians are of Acadian descent. Meaning they descended from the early French settlers of the Maritimes who occupied the area before the arrival of English and later Scottish colonists. In the western provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan there are the Metis communities who are mainly French speaking and are of mixed French, Plains Indian and in some cases Irish origin.

Canada's First Nations or Aboriginals and the Inuit remain the nation's oldest ethnic groups and before the arrival of Europeans, like the Aboriginals of other North and South American nations they existed with their own nations, languages and cultures. Today only a handful of Aboriginal languages are thriving in Canada, but with recognition as First Nations by the Canadian government and various levels of elected governments who have the ears of both the federal government and the provinces, Canadian Aboriginals are in a better position than the indigenous peoples of other western nations, except perhaps New Zealand. The Canadian Inuit have their own territory in northern Canada known as Nunavut, which is governed by a Premier, and the Inuit language Inuktitut has official status along with English and French.

Cultural nationalists generally wish to promote, celebrate or preserve Canadian traditions and culture, while a small fringe minority also want to preserve ethnic or racial dominance. Canadian racial nationalists remain a very small minority and have had little to no real impact on Canadian politics. One of the most well known culturally nationalist institutions which was created by the Conservative government of Richard Bennett to preserve Canadian culture and promote Canadian artists and entertainment is the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), modelled off of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). Today the CBC remains a popular source of almost entirely Canadian content enjoyed by millions of Canadian viewers. Canada also has content laws which promote Canadian artists and Canadian culture, to the annoyance sometimes of foreign (predominately American) media outlets who wish to make profit in Canada as well as in the other nations of the world.


Economic and Political Nationalism:

Aside from Quebec "sovereignists", or separatists whose goal is a separate Quebec which would supposedly be able to have an "economic union" with Canada, most economic and political nationalists from all parts of the nation are interested in Canada having a self sufficient economy and having completely independent political decision making, free from any American pressures. Today Canada is a partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which has eliminated protective economic tariffs on many Canadian goods and as many nationalists complain leaves room for American corporations to challenge Canadian environmental laws, cultural institutions and content regulations.

Also since the inception of NAFTA many Canadian owned businesses and corporations (some like the Hudson's Bay Company which are centuries old) are now completely or partially foreign owned. This issue has divided Canadians along nationalist and economically continentalist lines. Four elections have been fought over the idea of "free trade" or "reciprocity." During the first three in 1878, 1891 and 1911 the Conservatives (or Tories) fought against free trade and instead advocated a nationalistic economic program known as the National Policy which in its time allowed Canada to develop its own manufacturing industry and made Canada one of the most industrialized nations in the world. Many small businesses supported the idea of protectionism, as did most nationalists fearful of American domination, while larger businesses interested in access to American markets supported the Liberals who advocated one form of free trade or another in each of those elections.

In each "free trade election" the Liberals were horribly defeated each time they campaigned on free trade forcing them eventually to give up on the idea. For decades afterwards the issue was not re-visited until the 1980s when the issue would be resurrected by Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Mulroney reversed his party's protectionist tradition and after claiming to be against free trade during his leadership race in 1983, went forward with negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United States which his government felt would cure Canada's ills and unemployment at the time caused by a growing deficit and a terrible economic recession during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The agreement was drawn up in 1987 and an election was held on the issue in 1988. The Liberals in a complete reversal of their traditional role campaigned against free trade under former Prime Minister John Turner. the Tories were able to win a large majority, particularly due to Mulroney's support in Quebec among Quebec nationalists to whom he promised "distinct society" status for their province.

However the Tories while winning 169 seats out of 282, only received 43% of the vote, while 55% of the vote went to parties opposed to free trade (the Liberals and NDP), leaving a debate between opponents and supporters of whether Canadians ever did give a mandate for a free trade agreement. Because of the First Past the Post electoral system used by Canada, the vote splitting between the Liberals and NDP and the regional support of Quebec nationalists and western Neo-Conservatives Brian Mulroney was handed a second majority, giving him at least a legal mandate to go ahead with his FTA (Free Trade Agreement), which would be replaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement (or NAFTA) in 1994.

NAFTA was much further reaching than the FTA and was signed by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien a year after taking office. Canadians remain divided to this day over the issue. There are aspects of NAFTA which anger many Canadians (like environmental protection, cultural laws, softwood lumber and the cattle dispute), but the majority of Canadians, at least according to polls done a few years ago, do not seem to be opposed to the entire free trade agreement. There are strong voices for reform in certain areas: the New Democratic Party (or NDP) is the one major party which officially advocates renegotiating NAFTA to protect Canada's environment and the strength of Canadian economic legislation, while many voices do exist in both the Liberal Party and even in the new Conservative Party for reforms to NAFTA, or in some cases for the abolition of free trade all together. One of the strongest Conservative voices opposed to free trade comes from Red Tory activist David Orchard who ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party twice, placing a good second behind Joe Clark in 1998 and a decisive third in 2003.

Orchard along with other famous Tories like former Prime Minister Joe Clark and former cabinet minister and human rights activist Flora Macdonald opposed the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party with the conservative Canadian Alliance Party. However in 2003 the merger went ahead after a vote was held among the PC Party's riding delegates, as opposed to the party membership. Leaving many Red Tories, especially those like David Orchard who oppose free trade not sure of where to go. However recently David Orchard and his followers gave some hints of possible intentions to be involved with the new Conservative Party and to push their anti-free trade, nationalistic agenda in the new party.


Examples of economic Canadian nationalists/nationalist groups are:

Examples of cultural Canadian nationalists/nationalist movements are:

Famous Canadian nationalists:

Canadian nationalists have focused on many different issues. Some, for example, concentrated on independence and self sufficiency, while others concentrated on national unity or culture.

Origins: The first major attempt at creating a sovereign Canada took place in 1837 when rebellious reformers and patriots in both the English and French speaking Canadian colonies under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis Josef Papineau fought to overthrow British rule and establish an independent Canadian nation. Both rebellions failed, but it led to greater reforms in Canada and the creation of responsible government which eventually led to independence in 1867. Since that time numerous thinkers, politicians, orators, writers and rebels have attempted to inspire Canadians with their vision or ideas of how to make the nation strong, vibrant and independent.

The first such endeavour to inspire Canadians into building a national myth was begun by the partnership of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Georges Ettiene Cartier. Macdonald and Cartier rallied together both English and French Canadian loyalists and reformers convincing them that the unification of the colonies was the only way for Canada to escape American annexation and preserve the developing culture of the colony. They united this force together into the Conservative Party and eventually achieved a Confederation of the first 5 colonies into provinces of a new nation, the Dominion of Canada.

Macdonald continued to rally Canadians with nationalist policies intended to enlarge, enrich and strengthen Canada. Such as the construction of the largest railway in the world the great Canadian Pacific Railway, the protectionist National Policy, the settlement of the west, and expansion of Canada to the pacific coast. During the late 19th century and 20th century Canadian politics, which were split on Conservative-Liberal lines, generally tended to revolve around sovereignty and self sufficiency. The Tories favoured economic independence and close political ties to the United Kingdom, while the Liberal Party of Canada first favoured free trade, than freer trade (reduced tariffs) with the U.S. and close political relations with the Americans.

Canadian culture began to develop even stronger on its own, influenced by the mixture of English and French colonists, American refugees from the revolution, Scottish, Irish and eastern European farmers, Chinese migrant workers and even Canada's Aboriginal people. Canadian culture became based mainly on Canadianized British traditions and customs (similar to Australian culture), adopting a strange and unique mixture of the British, American and French political systems.

See also

Quebec nationalism

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