Mark Carney is Building More Than Infrastructure
Sixty Years After Lament for a Nation, the Importance of National Identity is Once Again Understood
By: Kiran Gill
Mark Carney has promised to rebuild Canada. He has ambitions to build pipelines, homes, and military installations — in short, the infrastructure Canada needs to be a country worth taking seriously. Behind this urge to build is a desire to become self-sufficient and less dependent on the United States. But reasserting our sovereignty also means redefining who we are as a country. While Carney’s infrastructure and spending promises have defined his first months in office, he has also signalled that his government will emphasize the importance of citizenship and identity. Promoting Canadian identity is as important as anything that can be physically built. If people are going to buy into the idea of a bigger, better Canada they need to be proud to be Canadians.
Following threats of annexation from Donald Trump, pride in Canada surged. However, most Canadians would still be hard-pressed to explain “Canadianness” better than former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did earlier this year (on U.S. television).
Is this lack of identity a problem? If you ask George Grant, it is. Grant, in his seminal work Lament for a Nation, asserted that Canada, without an identity, would inevitably be subsumed by the superpower to the south. Lament is reflective of the political context that it was written, but the crux of Grant’s argument still holds today.
In 1965, the year Lament was published, Lester B. Pearson was Prime Minister. In the eyes of Grant, the idea of Canada losing its status as a sovereign nation was a foregone conclusion. This was because Pearson’s ascendancy had come at the defeat of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who lost the election over his opposition to having American nuclear warheads on Canadian soil. Pearson on the other hand bowed down to the Americans and consequently received support from the highly influential Canadian business community.
Grant was not a fan of Diefenbaker. In fact, he was openly critical of him but believed in the conservative British tradition he represented. For Grant, the impossibility of a Diefenbaker government signaled the impossibility of a sovereign Canada. If Canada was in lock-step with the United States on foreign policy and technological capitalism meant Canadians were becoming “Americanized” for all intents and purposes we were part of the United States.
Grant’s warnings of Canada’s demise were soon forgotten after the publishing of Lament due to the rise of Pierre Trudeau. After fifteen years in office, Pierre Trudeau’s lasting legacy remains the creation of a new Canadian cultural identity. The introduction of the Multiculturalism Act in 1971 meant that Canada was no longer defined by its European forefathers but by its increasing cultural diversity. When Trudeau repatriated the constitution in 1982, our umbilicus with Britain severed and the “Charter Canadian” was created.
For the next thirty years, it seemed like the identity that Pierre Trudeau created had been cemented. Admittedly, there were bumps along the road, such as fears of the erosion of a collective identity due to the increasing prevalence of “hyphenated Canadians,” but these worries were quickly stamped out due to the ability of the country’s institutions to integrate new citizens while still creating room for cultural pluralism.
In 2015, Justin Trudeau was elected, his inability to understand the importance of Canadian identity led to the country suffering from both internal and external fissures.
Within his first months in office, Trudeau declared Canada a “post-national state” with “no core identity”. The intent of his statement was likely not malicious but rather an attempt at portraying Canada as limitlessly open and accepting. Nonetheless, by saying that a Canadian identity was anachronistic, Trudeau gave us no reason to believe in each other or the country.
But Trudeau did not stop at symbolic statements. In fact, he made it difficult for Canadians to embrace their identity. Terry Fox and Vimy Ridge were removed from our money, Canada was declared a “genocidal state" and the consensus on immigration and multiculturalism was destroyed (only a third of us believe immigrants strengthen our culture). These decisions combined with a decline in living standards led to many giving up on Canada. It’s no wonder that by the end of Trudeau’s tenure and the start of the trade war, one in four young Canadians was in favour of joining the United States.
Mark Carney opened his campaign with an ad declaring himself fiercely Canadian, and just as importantly, not American. Sure, Carney got lucky with the moment and took full advantage of Canadiana during the campaign, but since becoming PM he has shown that he is invested in fostering a resurgence in national identity.
Carney has since announced Steven Guilbeault as Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, renaming the cabinet title Trudeau had written in as “Heritage”. This has been followed by the implementation of the Canada Strong Pass and the release of a viral Heritage Minute featuring an iconic Tragically Hip song (created by Historica Canada).
Carney is telling Canadians to learn about, explore and understand their country. Though these are minute policy changes they are as crucial as reinvigorating the economy, to the maintenance of our sovereignty. If Canada does not continue to culturally and economically distance itself from the United States, political union with our southern neighbour will become a real possibility.
Kiran Gill (he/him) is the Managing Editor of The Bell and an MPP Candidate at the Max Bell School of Public Policy. He is excited to lead The Bellwether team this year! At The Bell, Kiran is especially interested in telling stories about labour and indigenous policy.