A Military History of Canada

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of History at Brock
University and author of TheWar of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won.

Professor Morton, through his many books and articles, is well known to
readers of Canadian history and current affairs. This work may also be
familiar, for it was originally published in 1985, and the changes are
less extensive than the publisher’s claim of a “new, revised and
updated edition” suggests. Additions have been made to the
bibliography and index, two new appendices have been inserted, and the
final section has been updated. These changes enhance the value of this
first-class survey rather than creating a new work.

In six chapters of considerable sweep, Morton covers a military history
in relation to Canada, from precontact Native warfare to last year’s
headlines. He delivers his judgments crisply. With reference to claims
that Champlain introduced “cruel European weapons to Indian warfare”
and made the Iroquois enemies of the French, he states, “both notions
are absurd.” Near the end of his last chapter, Morton discusses the
crumbling of communism in Eastern Europe and Gorbachev’s new policies
in the Soviet Union; he sees the Canadian government using these events
as “excuse enough to abandon the defence commitments made in 1987.”
He suggests that another reversal is a result of the 1987 Free Trade
Agreement: “defence policies based on ensuring Canadian sovereignty
were hardly more fashionable than nato in the new atmosphere of
continental integration.” This survey is intended to provoke as well
as to inform the reader.

Morton’s principal theme is that war has determined Canada’s
development far more than most Canadians realize, and that its shaping
includes “the myths and memories of a divided national identity.”
The separate “sense of identity” of French- and English-speaking
Canadians arose from experiences with war, yet he also credits
“Canada’s armed forces and Canada’s wars” with fostering “a
sense of national identity and pride.”

This work is comprehensive and timely. Anyone interested in Canada’s
past, or indeed its future, will find this book an excellent
introduction to the field.