Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings

Joseph Garcea is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan.

Contesting Canadian Citizenship is not merely about the naturalization,
identity, and political rights components of citizenship policy.
Instead, it covers a wide array of special topics related to the social
and economic rights component of citizenship policy as well as civic
education.

The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 deals with the general
theme of citizenship in theory and history, and with the evolution of
various components of citizenship policy in Canada. Part 2 examines
three important dimensions of citizenship: the granting of the franchise
in the 1800s, the citizenship discourse in Quebec, and the citizenship
discourse among Indigenous peoples. Part 3 looks at housing reforms, the
limited citizenship rights of housewives during the Great Depression,
and the emergence of leisure rights starting in the mid-20th century.
Part 4 focuses on civic education designed to foster “good citizens”
and the construction of citizenship identities targeted at groups such
as women, black Nova Scotian women, and teenagers. Part 5 considers the
citizenship regimes that applied to various types of youth over time
(including delinquent boys and girls and those who were in wardship), as
well as sexual offenders and people with mental-health problems. This
book makes an interesting and important contribution to the growing body
of literature on Canadian citizenship.