Is There a Canadian Philosophy?: Reflections on the Canadian Identity

Notes

NATIONALISM ANDTHE POLITICS OF IDENTITY If anything is to be learned from Canada's continuing ex­ periment in reconciling liberal principles with the politics of recognition, it is that in order for recognition to edify rather than fragment the public sphere, it must not fetishize identity in a manner that would reverse the principle of equal treat­ ment. (Anindication of how this kind of recognition could be achieved is discussed in Chapters 4 and 5.) Nor must it con­ cede legitimacyto the discourse of collectivevictimization, but limit provisions designed to recognize identities to measures protective of universal human rights. Whether Canada will serve as a model for nations around the world with increasing­ ly heterogeneous populations, or serve as a warning of the ex­ cesses of identity politics, will in large part depend on how this nation eventually resolves the matter of Quebec separatism. 1. See, for example,Ingram 1995,Kymlicka 1989, Maclntyre 1988, Sandel 1982, Taylor 1994, Unger 1975, Walzer 1983, and Warnke 1993. 2. See Ignatieff 1993 for an incisive critique of the contemporary nation­ alist phenomenon in various regions of the world. 3. Richard Gwyn provides an intriguing study of this in Gwyn 1995. 4. This is an ambiguity that echoes that of a large part of the contempo­ rary literature of communitarianism. What specific policy implications are proscribed by liberalism but justified on communitarian grounds is often an open question in the communitarianism of, for instance, Ingram 1995, Macln­ tyre 1984and Maclntyre 1988,Sandel 1982and Sandel 1996,Taylor 1994, Unger 1975, and Warnke 1993. 5. Nationalist expressions such as "Quebecois pure laine," "Quebecois de souche," and "Quebec aux Quebecois" leave little doubt concerning who those who utter such expressions hold to be true Quebeckers. Leaders of the national­ ist movement, including some Quebec premiers, have themselves not been above suggesting that it is indeed "old stock" Quebeckers who alone unqualifi­ ably represent the Quebec people. 6. See Hans­Georg Gadamer's discussion of tradition in Gadamer 1989. 7. See, for example, Carol Gilligan 1982. 8. Jurgen Habermas adds to this list common interests, experiences, insti­ tutions, and egalitarian communication networks in Habermas 1998. 9. See Alexis de Tocqueville 1990. 10. See especially Nietzsche 1969 and Nietzsche1989. 11. For some representative defenders of this view, see Dworkin 1977, Hayek 1960, Howard 1995, Kateb 1992, Machan 1995, Nozick 1974, and Rawls 1971 and Rawls 1993. Ill ...