What Is a Canadian?: Forty-Three Thought-Provoking Responses

Terry A. Crowley is a professor of history at the University of Guelph,
and the former editor of the journal, Ontario History. He is the author
of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality, Canadian History to
1967, and Marriage of Minds: Isabel and Osc

This collection of 43 short articles addresses such questions as what
the essence of Canada is and what it means to be a Canadian. The editor,
former policy analyst Irvin Studin, is not the first to ask such
questions. In 1961, Canadian historian W.L. Morton provided an extensive
consideration on the essence of Canada in his classic book, The Canadian
Identity. Morton’s inquiry is now sorely dated because today it would
have to be framed in terms multiple identities, but his sustained
argument about monarchy, parliamentarianism, and the northern
environment residing at the core of what it means to be Canadian is
still worth considering.

In 2007, a Canadian can be broadly defined as someone with a particular
nationality and numerous evolving identities. But Studin’s collection
is dated before its time by an outmoded conception that there is an
essence called Canadianism. Since the concept is so out of focus, the
various contributors (many of whom are prominent in Canadian life)
tackle the issue from innumerable angles. The book goes wrong at root
and contributions are too short to be satisfactory. There is no essence
called Canadianism, because essences as objects of intellectual
curiosity died during the course of the 20th century.