Canada, My Canada: What Happened?

Sidney Allinson is the editor at the Royal Canadian Military Institute
and author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

This timely and informative book combines a sweeping review of
Canada’s history with a sensitive analysis of many factors that ail
our nation today.

LaPierre is disarmingly honest about where his sympathies lie,
referring to French-Canadians as “my people.” Yet he avoids a simple
us-versus-them approach, and is capable of hurling brickbats at fellow
Quebeckers when he considers it warranted. He alludes wryly to “the
language zealots of today who travel in bands to find signs in English
in the Ottawa region, who intimidate English-speaking residents of
Quebec, or who fire elderly unilingual bus-drivers.”

The author makes a swift, yet often detailed, summary of what he
considers to be the 15 main events that formed our nation. Considering
his historian’s training, he gives unexpected prominence to the
Hiawatha fable in his account of the First Nations. Things pick up
nicely after this wobbly start, though, and he ably charts the drama of
Canada’s evolution. Throughout, his particular point of view is as
valuable as it is valid, offering new insights and an often refreshing
spin on how many English-speaking Canadians are accustomed to viewing
our history. For instance, he brings home the tremendous emotional
effect Louis Riel’s execution had on Quebec in 1885, and why it echoes
there to this day.

LaPierre writes movingly and well about the privations endured by
“ethnic” and Irish immigrants in the 19th century, yet he ignores
the sufferings of British immigrants at the time. Perhaps this gap
reflects an honest, if distorted, impression that “Anglo” settlers
did not have an equally hard time of it.

In assessing our nation’s valiant volunteer combat role in World War
I, he reminds us of how bitterly divisive was the conscription crisis of
1917. Explaining the fact that “not more than 20,000 French-Canadians
volunteered.” LaPierre makes the telling observation that when
conscription was finally introduced, “[o]f the draft-age men in
Ontario, 94 per cent sought exemptions, only 4 per cent less than in
Quebec.” Oddly, he glissades across the entire Second World War in
half a sentence.

Throughout, this perceptive author repeatedly affirms his belief in the
inherent strength of our nation to survive united. But he closes the
book with a Gallic shrug: “Because of the sovereigntists of Quebec and
the attitude of too many bigoted English-speaking Canadians, Canada
could still break up. What will happen then? Well the Rockies will
continue to amaze Japanese tourists, the St. Lawrence will flow
majestically into the Gulf as it has for thousands of years, the
Americans will still inundate us with their culture and wares, and the
earth will rotate and the universe unfold.”