The Centenary of Confederation as a Milestone in the Evolution of Canadian National Consciousness (original) (raw)

Culture, Canada, and the Nation

Histoire Sociale Social History, 2006

The contributions to this special issue exemplify the cultural turn of the study of nationalism. Although a concern with the narrative construction of national identity runs through the articles in this volume, it is tempered by the authors' inclination to explore the middle ground of social and cultural practices. By asking how Canadians "internalized" notions of national identity, how they incorporated them in their everyday lives and material worlds, and how they constructed a sense of Canadian-ness in inter-cultural encounters, the authors bring to the fore a Canadian nationalism that revealed itself not in the grand national ideal, but in more tangible practices, encounters, and stories. Les articles de ce numéro spécial témoignent du tournant culturel qu'a suivi l'étude du nationalisme. Le souci qu'on semble s'y faire pour la construction narrative de l'identité nationale y est tempéré par la propension des auteurs à chercher à comprendre le terrain mitoyen entre les pratiques sociales et culturelles. En se demandant comment les Canadiens ont « intériorisé » les notions d'identité nationale, comment ils les ont intégrées à leur quotidien et à leur monde matériel et comment ils ont forgé leur canadianité au fil des rencontres interculturelles, les auteurs révèlent un nationalisme canadien qui prend non pas la forme du grand idéal national, mais celui de pratiques, de rencontres et de récits plus tangibles. * Barbara Lorenzkowski and Steven High, guest editors of this issue of Histoire sociale/Social History, are faculty members in the Department of History at Concordia University. The editors are grateful for financial support received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Nipissing University, the latter of which provided a superb venue for the conference "Cultural Approaches to the Study of Canadian Nationalism", from which this theme issue is derived. Thank you, as well, to Colin Coates for offering such gracious and sound advice on the editing of this volume. 1 Anne Clendinning, "Exhibiting a Nation: Canada at the British Empire Exhibition, 1924-25", pp. 79-107. 2 We solicited the French-language contributions by Godefroy Desrosiers-Lauzon and Jocelyn Létourneau specifically for this volume. The term "realms of memory" is borrowed from Pierre Nora's magisterial Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, vol. III

The Concept of Canadian National Character in National Discourse of Canadian Federation after 1867

The article is devoted to the national discourse in Canada and the problem of defining semantic content of its central concepts as "nation" and "national character" in the second half of XIX - early XX cent. The main attention is given to the three important aspects of Canadian national ideology formation. First, historical conditions, events and processes that affected the appearance of Canadian nationalism. Several factors can be mentioned as the most important ones. They are the formation of the Canadian federation in 1867, the struggle for its centralization, the federal government policy of overcoming the isolation and disintegration of provinces, economic development of the Dominion of Canada, national market formation, demographic trends. Secondly, it studies in depth popular political and racial theories of that time and defines the specificity of their perception by Canadian elites during national discourse formation. All this allows us to get close to the main problem solution - to define key concepts of the Canadian national discourse semantic content and its influence on the development of Canadian nationalism and Canadian national identity.

Fireworks, Folk-dancing, and Fostering a National Identity: The Politics of Canada Day

Since 1958, the Canadian government has used the celebration of 1 July to promote particular models of national identity and to foster national unity. Commemorating the anniversary of Confederation, these Dominion Day and Canada Day (as renamed in 1982) observances changed over the decades to reflect changing government public policy objectives and new conceptions of the nation. From a celebration rooted in military pageantry stressing Canada's British heritage, these events were modified to promote a vision of a multicultural, bilingual country with a strong Aboriginal component. Moreover, Canada Day messages increasingly stressed the themes of individual achievement and respect for diversity. Although politicians played roles in determining the form and content of these events, and public response influenced which components were maintained, bureaucrats working in the Secretary of State department exercised a particularly strong influence on these celebrations, providing institutional continuity and expertise to planning efforts. These celebrations provide a key window into understanding the Canadian government's evolving cultural and national identity policies in the post–Second World War era. Résumé: Le gouvernement canadien utilise depuis 1958 les célébrations du 1er juillet pour promouvoir l'identité nationale, avec des modéles particuliers. La commémoration de l'anniversaire de la Confédération, ces célébrations de la fête du Dominion, renommée fête du Canada en 1982, a changé au cours des décennies afin de refléter la politique publique gouvernementale en mouvement et les nouvelles conceptions de la nation. D'une célébration enracinée dans un spectacle militaire insistant sur l'héritage britannique du Canada, on a modifié ces événements afin de promouvoir une vision d'un pays bilingue et multiculturel, doté d'une composante fortement autochtone. En outre, les messages de la fête du Canada portaient de plus en plus sur les thèmes des réalisations individuelles et le respect de la diversité. Bien que les hommes et les femmes politiques aient joué un rôle dans la détermination de la forme et du contenu de ces événements, et que l'accueil de la population ait eu une influence sur les éléments conservés, les bureaucrates travaillant au Secrétariat d'État ont exercé une influence particulièrement forte sur ces célébrations, en offrant une continuité institutionnelle et leur expertise en planification. Ces célébrations permettent de mieux comprendre les politiques en pleine évolution de l'identité nationale et culturelle du gouvernement canadien aprés la Seconde Guerre mondiale.