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Canadians

Page 38

by Roy MacGregor


  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

 

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