I am grateful to Peter C. Newman and Andrew H. Malcolm, two wonderful writers who also poked around in the belly-button lint of this nation, for constant support and, for that matter, periodic reminders to get at it and stay at it. I tip my laptop to where they travelled before I dared set out.
Two editors deserve very special mention. Both are tough, brilliant, stubborn, smart, manipulative, persuasive, and … always right. Barbara Berson of Penguin was there from the outline that was lost, as was Edie Van Alstine of Ottawa. If Confederation can be described as a “cat’s cradle,” as it has been in this book, that is nothing compared to the knotted coil that thousands of pages of notes can turn into. The book, in fact, was already written—and I thought done—when these editors decided it was only half done, needed to be untangled, re-thought, and recast. For whatever this adventure amounts to, I am forever grateful to these two fine editors and friends.
My gratitude also goes to Penguin’s David Davidar, who never wavered on his support and encouragement; to Jonathan Webb, who read and commented on the early version of the book; to Brian Bethune, the walking Canadian encyclopedia; to Penguin’s Tracy Bordian, who kept everything together; to Penguin’s art director, Mary Opper, for a wonderful cover; and to Karen Alliston, who did the fine copy editing and translated my scratches and eraser smudges and cross-outs into things that ended up looking like sentences.
I thank Brian Craik and Luci Salt for their help in Cree translations. To Ellen, I simply say thanks, as always.
And I also must pay a debt of gratitude to a long series of editors who, over a thirty-five-year period, saw fit to send me to places and let me go to places that perhaps didn’t always seem to make sense—but that in the end provided a sense of this country and the people of this wonderful country that would never have been possible to gain otherwise. Thank you, Peter Newman, Don Obe, Walter Stewart, Gary Lautens, Ray Timson, Kevin Doyle, Robert Lewis, Nelson Skuce, Scott Honeyman, Keith Spicer, Russell Mills, James Travers, Ken Whyte, and Ed Greenspon. The only expenses still outstanding are the ones I will always owe you….
Roy MacGregor
Ottawa
February 15, 2007
Selected Readings
Adams, Michael. Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values, Toronto: Penguin, 2003.
Anderssen, Erin, Michael Valpy, et al. The New Canada, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004.
Archbold, Rick. I Stand for Canada: The Story of the Maple Leaf Flag, Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2002.
Atwood, Margaret. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, Toronto: Anansi, 1972.
Barlow, Maude. Too Close for Comfort: Canada’s Future within Fortress North America, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2005.
Berton, Pierre. The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North
Pole 1818–1909, Toronto: Anchor Canada edition, 2001.
Bielawski, Ellen. Rogue Diamonds: Northern Riches on Dene Land, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2003.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The National Experience, New York: Vintage, 1965.
———. The Americans: The Democratic Experience, New York: Vintage, 1974.
Bowering, George. Stone Country: An Unauthorized History of Canada, Toronto: Viking, 2003.
Bowers, Vivien. Only in Canada, Toronto: Maple Tree Press, 2002.
Boyens, Ingeborg. Another Season’s Promise: Hope and Despair in Canada’s Farm Country, Toronto: Viking, 2001.
Bricker, Darrell, and John Wright. What Canadians Think: “About Almost Everything,” Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2005.
Brown, Craig, ed. The Illustrated History of Canada, Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1987.
Cameron, Elspeth, ed. The Other Side of Hugh MacLennan: Selected Essays Old and New, Toronto: Macmillan, 1978.
Cohen, Andrew. While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2003.
Colombo, John Robert. The Penguin Treasury of Popular Canadian Poems and Songs, Toronto: Penguin, 2002.
Coupland, Douglas. Souvenir of Canada, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2002.
English, John. Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Vol. One, 1919–1968, Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Epp, Roger, and Dave Whitson, eds. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, Governments, and the Transformation of Rural Communities, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2001.
Ferguson, Will. Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada, Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2004.
Francis, Daniel. A Road for Canada: The Illustrated Story of the Trans-Canada Highway, Vancouver: Stanton Atkins & Dosil, 2006.
Friesen, Gerald. The West: Regional Ambitions, National Debates, Global Age, Toronto: Penguin, 1999.
Frye, Northrop. The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination, Toronto: House of Anansi, 1995.
Fumoleau, René. As Long As This Land Shall Last: A History of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, 1870–1939, Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2004.
Gordon, Charles. The Canada Trip, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1997. Grady, Wayne, ed. Treasures of the Place: Three Centuries of Nature Writing in Canada, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1992.
Gray, Charlotte. The Museum Called Canada, Toronto: Random House, 2004.
Gruending, Dennis, ed. The Middle of Nowhere: Rediscovering Saskatchewan, Calgary: Fifth House Publishing, 1996.
Gwyn, Richard. Nationalism Without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
Hurtig, Mel. The Vanishing Country: Is It Too Late to Save Canada? Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2002.
Hutchison, Bruce. The Unknown Country: Canada and Her People, Toronto: Longmans, Green & Company, 1943.
———. The Far Side of the Street, Toronto: Macmillan, 1976.
———. A Life in the Country, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988.
Ibbitson, John. The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2005.
Janovicek, Nancy, and Joy Parr, eds. Histories of Canadian Children and Youth, Toronto: Oxford Press, 2003.
Keahey, Deborah. Making It Home: Place in Canadian Prairie Literature, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1996.
Laxer, James. The Border: Canada, the U.S. and Dispatches from the 49th Parallel, Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2003.
Layton, Jack. Speaking Out Louder: Ideas That Work for Canadians, rev. ed., Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2006.
Lynch, Gerald, ed. Leacock on Life, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
MacKay, Donald. Flight from Famine: The Coming of the Irish to Canada, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990.
Madison, G.B., Paul Fairfield, and Ingrid Harris. Is There a Canadian Philosophy Reflections on the Canadian Identity, Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2000.
Malcolm, Andrew H. The Canadians, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.
Major, Kevin. As Near to Heaven by Sea: A History of Newfoundland and Labrador, Toronto: Penguin, 2001.
Mandel, Eli, and David Taras. A Passion for Identity: An Introduction to Canadian Studies, Toronto: Methuen, 1987.
Morrison, Samuel Eliot. The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America, New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Morton, Desmond. A Short History of Canada, 3rd rev. ed., Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1997.
Morton, Desmond, and Morton Weinfeld. Who Speaks for Canada? Words That Shape a Country, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1998.
Morton, W.L. The Canadian Identity, 2nd ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972.
Nemni, Max, and Monique Nemni. Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919–1944, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006.
Newman, Peter C. Company of Adventurers, Toronto: Viking, 1985.
———. Caesars of the Wilderness, Toronto: Viking, 1987.
———. Merchant Princes, Toronto: Viking, 1991.
———. The Canadian Revolution: From Deference to Defiance, Toronto: Viking, 1995.
———. Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004.
Paxman, Jeremy. The English: A Portrait of a People, London: Penguin, 1999.
Purdy, Al. No Other Country, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977.
Saul, John Ralston. Reflections of a Siamese Twin: Canada at the End of the Twentieth Century, Toronto: Penguin, 1997.
Spicer, Keith. Life Sentences: Memoirs of an Incorrigible Canadian, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004.
Stackhouse, John. Timbit Nation: A Hitchhiker’s View of Canada, Toronto: Random House, 2003.
Staines, David, ed. The Forty-ninth and Other Parallels: Contemporary Canadian Perspectives, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
Stewart, Walter. But Not in Canada: Smug Canadian Myths Shattered by Harsh Reality, Toronto: Macmillan, 1976.
———. My Cross-Country Checkup: Across Canada by Minivan, Through Space and Time, Toronto: Stoddart, 2000.
Studin, Irvin, ed. What Is a Canadian? Forty-three Thought-Provoking Responses, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006.
Vance, Jonathan. Building Canada: People and Projects That Shaped the Nation, Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006.
Welsh, Jennifer. At Home in the World: Canada’s Global Vision for the 21st Century, Toronto: Harper Perennial, 2004.
Index
Acadian expulsion, 33–34
Adam, Mike, 60
Adzin, Patrick, 314
Afghanistan, military in, 155, 158
agriculture, 263–64, 280–88
Ahenakew, David, 224
Alberta, 140, 253, 265–66
Alert, CFB base, 320, 324–25
Alexandria, Ontario, 7–9
Algonquin Park, 326–31
Amherst, Jeffrey, 204–5, 224
anthem, national, 57–58, 61, 123, 309
Archbold, Rick, 61, 63
Arctic, 311–25
Arctic sovereignty, 312, 320–25
Art Ross Trophy, 110
Assembly of First Nations, 210
Atwood, Margaret, 14, 137, 142, 303
Audlaluk, Larry, 318–19, 323
Australian national identity, 44–45
Barker, William G., 130–33
Barlow, Maude, 181
Batoche, Battle of, 300–301
beaver, as symbol, 168–69
Behchoko, Northwest Territories, 314
Beothuks, 205
Bercuson, David, 171
Bergeron, Léandre, 291
Berton, Pierre, 22, 64, 139–40
bilingualism, 70, 92, 296–97
Birney, Earle, 12, 44
Bishop, Billy, 130–31
Black, Conrad, 177–78
black Canadians, 124, 162, 232–34, 330
Bliss, Michael, 171–72
Bloc Québécois, 69, 155, 295, 306
Bogstie, Don, 168–69
Boirier, Fernand, 308
Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, 270–73, 277–79
Bonspille, Barry, 221
border, U.S./Canada, 142–48
Bouchard, Lucien, 65, 155
Boudreault, Georges and Mario, 98–105
Bourassa, Robert, 196, 207, 216
Bourbonnais, Maurice and sons, 308–10
Bourget, Nicole, 73, 89
Bowering, George, 45, 299, 302
Bowker, Marjorie, 91–93
Boyens, Ingeborg, 282
Brandon, Manitoba, 80
Brazier, Clarence and Angela, 49–54
British immigrants, 162–63, 230–32
British national identity, 39–40, 43, 251
British views of Canada, 145–46, 169–70, 287
Broadbent, David, 73, 93
Brookside, Newfoundland, 280, 284–85
Bryden, Ronald, 162–63
Buchan, John and Susan, 287
Bumblebee of Nations, Canada as, 36–37, 320
Bush, George W., 146, 156–58, 165, 181, 265–66
Butala, Sharon, 268
Caboto, Giovanni, 9, 270
Calgary, Alberta, 240, 253, 261, 266, 268
Callaghan, Morley, 117
Cameron, David, 254
Campbell, Cassie, 96
Campbell, Clarence, 108–11, 119
Canada Pension Plan, 179
Canada–Soviet hockey series (1972), 113–15, 119
Canadian identity
British roots, 39–43, 145–46, 162–63, 238–39
Canada’s role, 166–67, 177–79, 181–82
complaints, 170–73
contradictions, 9–14, 60–61
diversity, 65–66, 124–25, 176, 238–40
introspection, 39–43
“make do” capacity, 51–52
patriotism and nationalism, 64, 165, 181–82, 331
politeness, 175–76
reasonable citizen myth, 29–30
reliance on rules, 29, 47, 140
sense of humour, 40, 43–45, 117, 160–61, 170
sense of inferiority, 41, 160–61, 167
sense of insecurity, 44, 169–70, 173
sense of superiority, 28, 40, 60–61, 160–63
sharing and generosity, 151, 185, 242–43
strength of identity, 238–39
tolerance, 168–70, 185, 232–35
See also hockey; landscape and nature;
literature, Canadian
Canadian Tourism Commission, 174
Cannon, Leo, 77–78
canoes, 64, 186–87
canoe trips, 186–93, 200–202, 251–52, 288, 331
Captain Canuck (comic), 45–46
Carrier, Roch, 98, 108, 115, 122, 125
Cartier, George-Étienne, 290–91
Cartier, Jacques, 9, 204
Chan, Shirley and Lee Wo Soon, 235–37
Charest, Jean, 305
Charlottetown, P.E.I., 73–77
Charlottetown Accord, 154–55, 223, 306
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 209
Cherry, Don, 119, 141
Chinese immigrants, 29–30, 235–37, 240
Chong, Denise, 240
Choudhry, Sujit, 48
Chrétien, Jean, 94–95, 149, 155, 291
Churchill Falls project, 85
Ciaccia, John, 217–18
Citizens’ Forum on Canada’s Future, 67–93
process for, 72–75
public responses, 67–70, 74, 76–79, 83–89, 114
reports, 86, 88–91, 154
Clark, Joe, 65, 92, 276
Clarkson, Adrienne, 163, 311–12, 320–25
climate change, 315–17, 322
Coates, Colin M., 292–93
Columbia space shuttle, 153
Commissioner 13, on Meech Lake, 72–73, 78–88, 92–93
Concordia University killings, 304
Confederation, 73–74, 77, 273, 276, 290, 297
conscription, Quebec response, 30, 111
Conservative Party, 165, 266–68, 295
Constitution Act (1982), 18, 208–9
constitutional reform, citizen’s forum. See Citizen’s Forum on Canada’s Future
cottage life, 251–52, 288, 326–29
country wives, 203–4
Coupland, Douglas, 166, 173
Coutts, Alberta, 142–43
Craine, Elizabeth, 266–67
Cree–Yamaha canoe trip, 186–93, 200–202
Crombie, David, 262
cross-country trips, 31–36
curling, 60
Cypress Hills Massacre, 205
Dafoe, John W., 23
Dallaire, Lt.-Gen. Roméo, 184–85, 240
Davies, Robertson, 27, 47
Dawson College shootings, 256, 304
decline of Canada, 171–77
Democratic Party, 265–66
demographics, 158–59, 253, 262, 264
Dene Nation, 207
Diamond, Annie, 194
Diamond, C
harlie, 187–96, 200–202
Diamond, Chief Billy
Cree–Yamaha canoe trip, 186–93, 200–202
defeat of Meech Lake, 210–15
James Bay project, 193, 196–97, 227
life of, 193–200, 225
Diamond, Elizabeth, 195–96, 199
Diamond, Malcolm and Hilda, 193–94, 200
Diamond, Philip, 199–200
Diefenbaker, John, 32, 62–63, 81–83, 163–64, 314
Douglas, Tommy, 141, 185, 248, 303
Doyle, Denzil, 45
Drapeau, Jean, 108–9
Dryden, Ken, 117, 121, 122, 124–25
Duceppe, Gilles, 306
Dufour, Christian, 48
Dumont, Gabriel, 300–301
Duvernay, Ludger, 291
Edmonton, Alberta, 83–84, 91, 95–96, 253, 261, 268
eh?, use of, 44, 159
electoral reform, 264–68
Ellesmere Island, 320–25
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 25, 257
entertainment, 43, 47, 139–40, 150, 160–61, 165
Epcot Center, Disney World, 152, 158–59
Epp, Roger, 249, 282
equalization payments, 13, 267–68, 274, 277
Erasmus, Georges, 211, 214, 217, 219–20
Esposito, Phil, 97, 113, 117
Etchegary, Gus, 273–74
Étienne-Cartier, George, 307
explorers, 9, 138, 204, 270
Faulkner, William, on the Rocket, 102
federation, Canada as second-oldest, 37
First Nations
history of, 197–98, 204–9, 219–20, 224–28
land claims, 207, 217, 223, 227–28
living conditions, 83–84, 198–203, 223–24, 250
Meech Lake defeat, 208–15, 222–23
Oka Crisis, 215–22
See also James Bay Cree
First World War, 130–33, 145, 206
Fisher, Red, 108, 110, 113
fisheries, decline of, 83, 270–79
Fitzgerald, Betty, 272, 274, 277–79
flag, 60–63, 160, 194, 277, 325
Fleming, Sandford, 33
Fontaine, Phil, 210–13, 227
Canadians Page 38
