Speaking of Canada: The Centennial History of the Canadian Clubs

D.M.L. Farr is professor emeritus of history at Carleton University in
Ottawa and the co-author of Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

This little book is an affectionate history of the Canadian Clubs since
the organization of the first at Hamilton in 1893. It is written by the
secretary-treasurer of the Club in Toronto, a retired trust company
executive. Stephen Leacock in 1909 remarked that Americans were correct
when they said that Canadians had “no fixed ideal in (their) national
life” but were “stumbling in the dark.” The Canadian Clubs were
founded to overcome this lack of purpose. The clubs were to be
instruments of nationalism, intended to foster a love of Canada through
a greater knowledge of its history, institutions, and culture.
Politically nonpartisan, they represent an early–20th-century example
of the adult education movement.

Merifield has diligently assembled a record of Canadian Clubs across
the country, demonstrating that 15 have survived without a break since
1909. Others have come and gone; women’s clubs have sprung up to live
separately or to merge with male counterparts; an Association of Clubs
has helped to provide speakers and exchange information among clubs. The
author explains why Toronto has both a Canadian Club and an Empire Club;
the latter was formed by people who objected to the criticism of Britain
for its alleged sacrifice of Canada’s interests in the Alaska Boundary
case of 1903.

The most interesting feature of the book for non-Canadian Clubbers is
its recital of speech topics for club meetings and how they have changed
over the years. In its first decade the Hamilton Club heard a talk on
the battle of Stoney Creek in the War of 1812; in 1991, following the
collapse of the Meech Lake Accord, John Turner addressed the Toronto
Club on “Where Do We Go from Here?”

Merifield is candid in bringing out the decline in membership among
Canadian Clubs in recent years. The younger generation, it appears, will
not come out to lectures and talks in the way their parents did. This
phenomenon clearly has serious implications, not just for Canadian
Clubs, but for all types of educational and discussion groups.

A list of presidents of Canadian Clubs and of the Association of Clubs
comes at the end of the volume, together with a note on sources. There
are eight pages of illustrations.