“Limited Identities” in Canada

"Limited Identities" in Canada* J. M. S. CARELESS ASUITABLE TEXT FOR THE PRESENT DISQUISITION maybefound inareview article by Professor Ramsay Cook discussing some works of 1967that dealwithCanada's perennial problem, itslackof national unityand identity. OnthistopicProfessor Cookremarks: "Perhaps instead of constantly deploring ourlackofidentity weshould attempt tounderstand andexplain theregional, ethnicandclass identities thatwe do have.It mightiustbethatit isin these limitedidentities that'Canadianism ' is found,andthat except for our over-heated nationalist intellectuals Canadians findthissituation quitesatisfactory. "• What follows here,then,is a commentary on thisthemein twentiethcentury Canada: ff onenation, eminently divisible. Canadian historiography hasoftendealttoowishfully withnationalism - andergo, withunification - thus producing bothexpectations anddiscouragements outofkeeping withrealities. Wemaybesomewhatpast thecolony-to-nation epitome oftheCanadian story ("and with sovereignty, everybody livedhappilyeverafter- seeAfrica"), butwearestillconsiderably hung upontheplotofnation-building. There arethegood guys andthebad,theunifying nation-builders and theirfoes; though one trouble isthatthecharacters often change hats andwhiskers intheFrench-language version. There arealso thegood erasandthebad,largely seen in terms of nation-building. In this sense, during thetwentieth century, Canada's years before thetesting ofWorldWarxweregolden years ofnational expansion; the'twenties adecade where blotchy prosperity was further marred byth, efederal government abdicating national Ieadership; thedepressed thirties a timeofcrisis infederal, more thanclass, relationships; the'forties an eraofnational triumph arising outofnational trial;andthebooming *Anearlier version ofthispaper waspresented toa meeting oœ theAmerican HistoricalAssociation heldin Toronto,December1967. •G. R.Cook,"Canadian Centennial Cerebeations," International Journal, XXII (autumn, 1967), 663. Vol. L, No. 1, March, 1969 2 TIq_ECANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 'fitiesa newnoonday ofnation-building, unity,andharmony - a•ter whichthedarkening discord of the'sixties follows asa decided shock. NowI wouldnotseekto denya good dealofvalidityevento this oversimplified, partialversion of thenation-building account. I mean ratherto saythatit ismerelyoneassessment, whichdoes notnecessarilyhaveto be equated withtheworking outof historical destiny forCanada. Thisisnottocondemn it astooreadily subiective - and thereby enterintothebottomless debate astowhether thereisobiectivehistory . It is to assert instead thatthethemeof nation-building hasan unfortunately teleological east.Onelooks for the endto be achieved; onemeasures developments, proorcon, interms ofthegoal - a strong, unitednation.One anticipates the re-enactment of the American success storyand,whenit doesnot come,particularly blames the presence of the hugeAmerican neighbour itself.Again thisis not to denyall validityto that account. Obviously, a transcontinental Canadian union has been established and has been constantly subjected topowerful American influences. Butit stillcanbe contended that the nation-building approach to Canadian history neglects andobscures even whileit explains andilluminates, andmay tell us less about the Canada that now is than the Canada that should have been - buthas notcome topass. Viewedin a different context, accordingly, theyears of theearly twentieth century canappearasthe periodwhena vigorous new western regionemerged to ioin the existing coterieof Canadian regions; the'twenties, asthetimewhenforces of modern industrial society began to shape thepresent powerful provincial empires; the 'thirties, whenclass andethnicstrains proved at leastaspotentin disrupting theCanadian political fabricastheconstitutional decisions of the JudicialCommittee of the PrivyCouncil; the 'forties, when external crisis undoubtedly brought resurgent national sentiment - but twonationalisms, intwoCanadas; the'fifties, anerawhenrapidindustrialandurbangrowth greatly strengthened regional orientations and ethnic pressures - andhelped bringonthedivisions ofthe'sixties as anatural consequence. Thisisnotanattempt toreplace asuccess story withafailure story - nor,indeed, isit verynew,since it essentially putsforward elements longrecognized. Whatmaybe newer, however, isthenotion thatif theCanadian people havefallenshort oftheCanadian dream(held, that is, chiefly by historians andintellectuals) it couldbe because theirinterests wereelsewhere - andthattheynevertheless shared in a viable Canada, if notthatlaidupinheaven forthem. Accordingly, it mightbeworthinvestigating whattheirCanadian experience was, observing that it did notgreatlyfocus onOttawaandthedeeds of "LIMITED IDENTITIES" IN CANADA 3 herofederal politicians, oronthemeagre symbols of some all-Canadianwayoflife . How,then, isthisCanadian experience tobediscerned anddefined? Someof it is doubtless common to all as citizens in onepolitical sovereignty, withmanyeconomic andsocial interconnections besides. Butmuch ofit surely liesin the"limited identities" ofregion, culture andclass referred to by Professor Cook. These represent entities of experience for Canadians no lessthanthe transcontinental federal union;indeed,it is largelythrough themthat Canadians interpret their nation-state asa whole.Of course- emphatically - regional, ethnic, andclass factors apply inother national histories; andofcourse theyhave scarcely gone unnoticed in Canada aswell.Butwhatstill isneeded ismore study oftheirroles inthiscountry ofrelatively weak nationalizing forces: a landoftwolanguages, pluralized politics, and ethnicmultiplicity, yet all sofar contained withinonedistinctive frame of nation-state existence. It isimpossible to domore herethansketch some outlines ofthis studyor,because of the limitations of space, to gomuchbeyond oneaspect of thelimitedidentities, theregional, whiletouching on ethnic andclass factors in passing. It maybehoped, however, that enough canbedone tomake plainthesignificance ofsuch a viewof Canada throughout itsdevelopment asanation-state. In takingup...