Who Are the People of Canada, Anyway?: Waiting for the Next Referendum

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University, the
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom,
and the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste. Marie.

On the back cover of this book, Citizen X is defined as “a pseudonym
for an over-educated student of Canadian politics who wants to tell the
truth for a change and still have a job when he’s through.”

Written largely in the first person, Who Are the People of Canada,
Anyway? is a well-researched history of Canada. There are fascinating
charts and tables about Canada’s place in the world, Quebec’s place
in Canada, the Canadian economy, and the identity of Canadians. In an
era when few study history and most high-school students no longer know
the name of Canada’s first prime minister or the year of
Confederation, it is better that Canadians learn their history through a
book such as this than not at all. While professional historians and
students of history would prefer a more serious manuscript, this one may
appeal to those who would otherwise not learn any Canadian history.

Topics include the origins of New France, the Conquest of 1759, the
arrival of the Loyalists, the fur trade, Confederation, settlement
patterns, Canada’s struggle for identity as the British Empire
declined, the Canadian economy, and Canada’s constitutional conflicts
since 1960. The author is a patriotic Canadian who demonstrates that
Canadians need each other. He also is widely read and makes several
useful bibliographical suggestions. The order is not chronological, but
the index should enable readers to recall whatever facts and opinions
they seek.

The book ends with possible scenarios after a third Quebec referendum,
but the strength of the book lies elsewhere. After all, nobody can
predict what reactions will be to any particular event in any particular
context.