Belonging: The Meaning and Future of Canadian Citizenship

John Stanley is a policy advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and
Universities.

“A Canadian citizen is a British subject.” Once printed in every
Canadian passport, this statement of Canadian citizenship made the
notion seem so uncomplicated. As the contributors to this volume
demonstrate, however, our country’s ideas about citizenship defy
simple explanations. The Roundtable on Citizenship, whose participants
produced these essays, was held at the University of Ottawa in January
1992 to stimulate interest in Canadian citizenship as a source of
national unity and strength. It seems clear that the conference
organizers soon lost sight of this original goal as they moved to
analyzing the meaning of citizenship and then to discussing
“meaningful” citizenship.

To address the many issues that arise from such a wide-ranging
discussion, the volume is divided into four parts: history, regions, the
law, and groups. The first section is well handled by distinguished
historians such as Robert Bothwell, J.L. Granatstein, and Desmond
Morton. The section on regions focuses solely on French Canada: Acadia,
Franco-Ontario, and Quebec. The two Québécois contributions are in
French, the remaining two in English. It is not surprising that this
section veers off into discussions of diversity, separatism, and
national unity, which are important to Canada’s future but only
marginally touch on its citizenship. The third section wanders even
further afield; the essays conclude that citizenship no longer means the
same thing to everyone. In the fourth section, the puzzled reader
listens to a number of disaffected groups—trade unions, women, racial
minorities, First Nations—deliver their customary messages. Not
surprisingly, these participants conclude that Canadian citizenship
would be much more “meaningful” if it met all of their needs! At
this point, readers will recognize that something has gone terribly
wrong with the conference—and this volume. The original subject has
become so dissipated as to be meaningless. We are left with a concept
that must be “meaningful” in order to be acknowledged!

Citizenship is a function of independent nationhood. Rather than being
established in a bold burst by revolution or proclamation of
independence, Canadian concepts of citizenship evolved as Canada reached
full dominion status. They were thus affected by the numerous
compromises necessary to hold together the new nation. As a result, even
the national government has demonstrated ambivalence regarding the very
need for, and implications of, Canadian citizenship. The vagueness of
national attitudes toward citizenship parallels the nebulous view
Canadians hold of this land—that it is more than simply utilitarian,
but seldom jingoistic. This attitude is uncommon in modern nationalism,
and has led some to believe that Canada is the first postmodern nation.
Such ideas would be worth pursuing. Unfortunately, this volume’s
idealistic goals have been sidetracked by the conference participants’
own ambitions.