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Canadian nationalism

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

Most self-identified Canadian nationalists today are generally members of the mainstream left and oppose the economic and cultural "Americanization" of Canada. There are some right-wing nationalists, and they will generally put more emphasis on preserving Canada's British and French heritage. What all Canadian nationalists have in common is an interest in at least one of the following:

In general, Canadian nationalists are highly concerned about the protection of Canadian sovereignty. It has likewise often been suggested that anti-Americanism, or at least hostility towards the United States often plays a prominent role in Canadian nationalist ideologies. When nationalists speak of "independence", it is widely understood that the actual meaning is "independence from the United States". Canadian nationalists may in fact promote stronger ties to other nations, and encourage closer integration with the European Union or the United Nations as a way of offsetting US influences.

One of Canada's most aggressive nationalist leaders former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker once explained his views to the New York Times by expressing "I am not anti-American. But I am strongly pro-Canadian."


Origins

Canada's culture, like the cultures of other western nations, has primarily European roots. Specifically, English Canadian customs and values are derived mainly from United Kingdom and French Canadian customs and values are derived mainly from France. As well, both halves of Canada were heavily influenced by the young United States in the form of American Loyalists who fled northwards after the American Revolution. Many attempts have been made throughout the history of Canada to force or coerse these two groups to form a common nationalism, including the Act of Union 1840 and the Constitution Act, 1982, which promoted bilingualism in Canada.

In 1792, Prince Edward, then serving in Canada on military duties and as Commander of British North American troops, was present when a riot, fuelled by ethnic character, broke out at the first elections for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. The Prince climbed up to where he could be heard and addressed the crowd, stating: "Part then in peace. I urge you to unanimity and accord. Let me hear no more of the odious distinctions of English and French. You are all His Britannic Majesty's beloved Canadian subjects." It was reportedly the first time the word "Canadian", which had previously been reserved only for Francophones, was used in a manner that included all plapapa colonialists.[1]

The first major attempt at breaking British dominance over Canada occurred 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 Joseph Papineau fought to overthrow British rule.

The first such endeavour to inspire Canadians into building a national myth was begun by the partnership of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne 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. They united this force together into the Conservative Party, and eventually achieved a Confederation of the three colonies into provinces of a new nation, Canada.

In the late 19th century after becoming a nation, Canadian culture began to develop even stronger on its own, influenced by the mixture of English, French, American, Scottish, Irish, German, eastern Europeans, Asians (Chinese and Japanese - mostly in the West) and Aboriginal peoples with their associated cultural contributions mixing into what became Canadian society. Canadian culture was still heavily dominated by Canadianized British traditions and customs (similar to Australian culture) and its governance was adopted from a unique mixture of the British, American and French political systems.

Nationalism in modern Canada

Although Canada's cultures were heavily influenced by British and French cultures, modern Canada resembles the United States much more than the United Kingdom or France. This is largely because Canada and the United States evolved in parallel to each other and share a common major language, history, and geography. Indeed, 90% of Canadians live within 120 km of the US border. [citation needed] Some residuals of British dominance over Canada still remain in the form of Canadian grammar using British spellings over American spellings in some cases. However, in terms of speech and inflection Canadian English tends to ressemble American speech more closely, though Canadian English retains its distinctions. Canadian political and legal systems borrow heavily from the British, in the form of constitutional monarchy and the Westminster system.

In Quebec, Canadian culture, although sharing some similarities with the rest of the nation, is unique because of its French origins and character. In Quebec, civil law is based on the French tradition (similar to the U.S. state of Louisiana) instead of the Canadianized English Common Law which is used elsewhere. Both French and English holidays are celebrated and more than 84% of the province's population use French as their first language, 10% use English while 6% use another language. Many of Quebec's cultural nationalists have argued for separation from the rest of Canada due to Quebec's cultural and linguistic uniqueness, but no attempts have ever been successful.

Francophone communities also exist outside of Quebec. 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 and Irish colonists. In the western provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan there are the Metis communities who are mainly of French and Aboriginal origin. The Franco-Ontarians largely resemble their Quebecois counterparts, having migrated there seeking employment. However, similar to but not as extreme as French Americans in New England, many people of Franco-Ontarian descent have lost their cultural links to Quebec and a growing number having little understanding or do not speak French after generations living in an English-speaking dominated society.

Aboriginal peoples in Canada such as the First Nations and Inuit remain the nation's oldest ethnic groups and before the arrival of Europeans, like the Aboriginals of other North and South American nations, 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 other levels of government, Aboriginals in Canada are in a better position than the indigenous peoples of other western nations, except the Nordic countries and New Zealand. The Inuit in Canada 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 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 best 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 after the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). Today the CBC remains a fairly popular source of almost entirely Canadian content enjoyed by millions of Canadian viewers and listeners. Canada also has content regulations which promote Canadian artists and Canadian culture.

Economic and political nationalism

Aside from Quebec sovereignists or separatists whose goal is a separate Quebec with 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 tariffs on many Canadian goods. Many nationalists complain this leaves room for American corporations to challenge Canadian environmental law, cultural institutions, labour rights and media 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 advocated a nationalistic economic program known as the National Policy.

In each "free trade election", the Liberals were defeated, forcing them to give up on the idea. For decades afterwards, the issue was not re-visited until the 1980s when the issue was resurrected by Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Mulroney reversed his party's protectionist tradition, and, after claiming to be against free trade during his leadership campaign in 1983, went forward with negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United States. His government believed that this would cure Canada's ills and unemployment, which had been 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 reversal of their traditional role, campaigned against free trade under former Prime Minister John Turner. The Tories won the election with a large majority, partially due to Mulroney's support in Quebec among Quebec nationalists to whom he promised "distinct society" status for their province.

Despite the majority victory in the election of 1988 opponents of free trade pointed to the fact that the PC Party of Brian Mulroney received a majority of seats in parliament with only 43% of the vote while together the Liberal Party and New Democratic Party both of whom opposed the agreement received 51% of the vote. Showing opposition from a clear majority of the population.

Criticism of Canadian nationalism

"Canadian nationalism," as it is widely understood today, is not synonymous with Canadian patriotism, but is rather a distinct political movement. Canadian nationalists will often argue that anyone who disagrees with their agenda is a "bad Canadian" or a "sell-out," a tactic which has earned them many critics. The Council of Canadians, for example, which bills itself as one of Canada's leading nationalist organizations, has always been extremely critical of rightwing (and centre-right) politicians and parties who support integration with the United States. Their most common targets have included former Prime Minster Brian Mulroney, current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, the Canadian Alliance, the Conservative Party of Canada, amongst other conservative movements and individuals. In particular, the council routinely characterizes Canadian "neoconservatives" as being the individuals most responsible for destroying Canadian sovereignty from within. Conservative critics will thus often characterize modern Canadian nationalism as being a primarily leftist movement, allied too heavily with the Canadian labour movement and New Democratic Party.

Conservative critics and others have also characterized the Canadian nationalist movement as being motivated primarily by supposed anti-Americanism and little else. They claim that many of the causes nationalists choose to embrace, such as advocating the end of the American trade boycott on Cuba have little to do with Canadian interests, and are instead primarily embraced because they give an opportunity to criticize the United States. In the case of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, an embargo opposed by the vast majority of governments around the world, including Canada and in similar cases of American policy regarding other nations (such as the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories, U.S. animosity towards the government of Venezuela and the War in Iraq) most Canadian nationalists, as well as many others claim to be guided by their political principles as opposed to any kind of superficial "Anti-American" xenophobia.

There is also a political faction on the Left critical of what they call "left nationalism", arguing that it is a mistake to combine left politics with nationalism. Political currents which oppose left nationalism include the International Socialists, the New Socialist Group and Socialist Voice. However these organizations are marginal in terms of membership when compared to Canadian organizations of the Left that choose to embrace nationalism (such as the Council of Canadians and Canadian Labour Congress). Marxist theoreticians who have written critiques of left nationalism include William Carroll, David McNally, Paul Kellogg, Steve Moore and Debi Wells. In 2003, the debate took written form in the pages of Canadian Dimension and on a web-based publication ViveleCanada.ca.

List of self-identified nationalist groups in Canada

1. Leftwing and Centre-Left, Economic/Political and Cultural nationalist groups

2. Far Right, ethnic nationalist and racist groups

3. Examples of cultural Canadian government departments in charge of cultural nationalism

Some important historical Canadian nationalist leaders

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Canadian Royal Heritage Trust: Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada

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