True Patriot Love: The Politics of Canadian Nationalism

Eric P. Mintz is an associate professor of political science at the
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Nationalism may be considered the most significant of modern political
ideologies. Canadian nationalism, however, has been of somewhat limited
importance, because of our cultural, regional, and ideological divisions
and our ambivalent attitudes toward the United States.

Bashevkin, a professor of political science at the University of
Toronto, considers the significance of nationalist ideas for Canadian
public policy through an examination of the tax treatment of Time and
Reader’s Digest (Bill C–58), the National Energy Program, and the
Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Her analysis indicates that the
policies that were adopted cannot be explained exclusively by a
“societal” approach that focuses on the resources of competing
interest groups nor by a “bureaucratic” approach that focuses on the
autonomous preferences of state officials. Rather, she argues that an
“integrative” approach that includes the receptivity to nationalist
ideas within the governing party, the media, and the public, and the
influence of international actors (notably the U.S. government) along
with the factors identified by the societal and bureaucratic approaches
can best explain policy outcomes. Political factors were somewhat
conducive to the adoption of nationalist cultural and investment
policies by the Trudeau government. But support for nationalism was not
strong enough to prevent the continentalist Mulroney government from
proceeding with the Free Trade Agreement. Bashevkin also examines the
opposition of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women to
the Free Trade Agreement, and the relationship between Canadian and
Quebec nationalism. The book concludes by speculating on the future of
Canadian nationalism.

Bashevkin presents her arguments clearly and concisely. Although the
case studies are based on secondary sources and are not highly detailed,
True Patriot Love makes a major contribution to the analysis of public
policy in Canada by offering evidence that political and ideological
factors matter. Nationalism may be unlikely to become the dominant
ideology in Canada, but the contending perspectives of nationalism and
continentalism are likely to continue to play an important role in
Canadian political life.