The term ‘Canadian political culture’ is often used by political scientists as an umbrella term to describe our political landscape and history. But what really is Canadian political culture? Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, seeks to answer this question in his book In Search of Canadian Political Culture. Through statistics, history and observation he explores the hills and valleys of our political landscape and comes up with two conclusions; Modern Canadians are more alike now than ever before, and regional differences are becoming more entrenched (Wiseman, p. 271-272). According to Wiseman, these contradictory conclusions speak to the nature of our political culture where we seek to cultivate a national identity while at the same time emphasising our regional differences.
He lays out the structure about his thesis by dividing our history and geography into identifiable sections. Wiseman defines our history into periods of different waves of immigration starting with French in the 1600s to a fifth wave from Asia, The Caribbean and Latin America. Each of these waves brings different political cultures and ideologies with them that shape our own. He also divides our geography into five regions; Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, the Mid-West (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) and the Far West (Alberta and British Columbia). He explains that each of these regions have their own unique political cultures that have evolved over time through immigration patterns. Using these two structures, Wiseman comes to some interesting conclusions.
Wiseman’s first main conclusion is that modern Canadians are more alike now than ever before. He points to the intermarrying of Canadians from different regions, the incr...
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...ing the “Anything But Conservative” campaign. This campaign shut out the conservatives from electing any members of parliament in the province during that election. The campaign was provoked by a disagreement dating back to 2004 over oil and gas revenues and equalization payments with Newfoundland wanting to keep both. A recent history of Newfoundland punching above its weight and standing up centralized federal government shows there was a change of political culture from its inward looking, conflict ridden past (Wiseman, p. 147-149). The ABC campaign and later conflict with Quebec over a hydro-dam, is a continuation of this new political culture. Newfoundland flexing its provincial muscles over the interests of the nation as a whole is another recent example of the predominance of regional political cultures and the desire to seek a balance of power between them.
Palmer, Howard. Patterns of Prejudice: A History of Nativism in Alberta. Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, 1982. Print.
Quebec’s social identity and defining characteristics contradict and conflict with those of rest of Canada. Since the genesis of our country, the political, social disagreements, and tensions between Quebec and the rest of Canada have been unavoidable. Utilizing Hiller’s key contradictions in the analysis of a Canadian society, we will compare and contrast the nature of the societal identity in Quebec compared to that of rest of Canada, emphasising on the major differences and tensions between the province and the rest of the country.
Stevenson, Garth. "Canadian Federalism: The Myth of the Status Quo." Reinventing Canada: Politics of the 21st Century. Ed. M. Janine Brodie and Linda Trimble. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 2003. 204-14. Print.
Newman, Garfield et al. Canada A Nation Unfolding. Toronto: Mc Graw – Hill Ryerson Limited, 2000.
Furthermore, the issues of representation in the House of Commons are even more evident in terms of the alienation of certain provinces. Western Canada has experienced political alienation due to the dominance and influence of Ontario and Quebec over policy-making as both provinces contain the founding Cultures of Canada (Miljan, 2012, p. 53) Also, the fact that Ontario and Quebec make up more than 60 percent of Canada’s population attracts policymakers to those provinces while marginalizing the interests of westerners (Miljan, 2012, p. 53). Thus, policymakers will favor Ontario and Quebec as these provinces harbor the most ridings as well as the bigger electors’ base. In fact, Western Canada is also underrepresented in both the House of Commons and the Senate when compared to the Maritime provinces as the Maritime provinces are overrepresented compared to their population. Also, many western Canadians are turned off by the federal government as they have been alienated from major political action and discussion due to low representation (Canada and the World Backgrounder, 2002). In other words, Ottawa does not address the needs and hopes of Western Canada
Newman, Garfield, Bob Aitken, Diana Eaton, Dick Holland, John Montgomery, and Sonia Riddoch. Canada: A Nation Unfolding. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 252-53. Print.
Sandwell, Ruth Wells; Woloshen, Mark. Snapshots of 19th century Canada : a unit on nine selected events viewed from the perspectives of French and English Canadians, aboriginal peoples and recent immigrants. Richmond, B.C. : Critical Thinking Cooperative, 2002.
“Multiculturalism” entered public speech in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Canada that focused on unique cultural diversity, nationalities, and ethnicity across the nation. Multiculturalism and Immigration are important factors in the development of Canada to attain a strong multicultural example of economic stability, social and political growth which leads to the emergence of Canada’s identity and culture.
May, E. (2009). Losing Confidence: Power, politics, and the crisis in Canadian democracy. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart.
What is Canada? What is a Canadian? Canada, to employ Voltaire's analogy, is nothing but “a few acres of snow.”. Of course, the philosopher spoke of New France, when he made that analogy. More recently, a former Prime Minister, Joe Clark, said that the country was nothing but a “community of communities”. Both these images have helped us, in one way or another, try to interpret what could define this country. On the other hand, a Canadian could be a beer, a hockey-playing beaver or even a canoe floating in a summer day's sunset. A Canadian could also be a “sovereigntyphobe”, refusing to see the liquefaction, albeit political, of the second largest country in the world. However, in this era of multiculturalism, could the current immigration flow help us determine what is a Canadian and, to an extent, what is Canada?
This study will define the importance of the cultural institution of Canadian federalism and the political leadership of Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau during the late 1960s. Under PM Trudeau’s leadership, the Quiet Revolution failed to break apart Canadian federalism due to the unifying cultural aspects of language that he promoted through the Official Languages Act of 1969. Trudeau was a loyal Quebecker in terms of political power, yet he chose to unite Quebec and Ottawa in unity through a mutual respect for Anglophile and Francophile interests. Language was the primary barrier to national identity in Canada, which provide a political platform for PM Trudeau to implement a multicultural political solution to declare English and French
This paper will prove how regionalism is a prominent feature of Canadian life, and affects the legislative institutions, especially the Senate, electoral system, and party system as well as the agendas of the political parties the most. This paper will examine the influence of regionalism on Canada’s legislative institutions and agendas of political part...
Thompson, John Herd, and Mark Paul Richard. "Canadian History in North American Context." In Canadian studies in the new millennium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 37-64.
Frist, federalism is the division of power between the provinces and the federal government (Cutler 2010, 3). As well, Federal systems tend to be made up of multiple parts, which do not necessarily work together (Brock 2008, 3). There has been an increase on the study of federalism in recent years, which has created a more in-depth look at how federalism impacts the government. (Farfard Rocher 2009, 294). There are two aspects of federalism and both of them put limitations on the influence of the prime minister. The first is called political asymmetry; this encompasses the various attitudes of the different provinces such as the culture, economic, social and political conditions and how it shapes the relationship between the provincial and federal governments (Brock 2008, 4). This can create a problem for the federal government because it means that they may ha...
Canada’s own identity starts with our remarkable sense of culture and customs. For the native peoples, the Canadian identity stretches thousands of years into the search of struggles to retain elements of their ancient culture. From a colonial perspective, the traditions which surface in Canadian culture seem to be born of an earlier time, of different origins and places, of old-fashioned rituals, and customs. Unlike the United States, its senior neighbor, Canada’s aged-like identity is more reserved and skillful, unwilling to commit it self to anything specific. Within each region of Canada-