The Next Canada: In Search of Our Future Nation

Jeffrey J. Cormier is an assistant professor of sociology at Queen’s
University.

This is a comprehensive effort by a former 1960s radical to understand
the current social and political attitudes of what—borrowing from a
Pepsi commercial—is referred to as “Generation Next.” Kostash
traveled across Canada interviewing the opinion leaders of Generation
Next, the vast majority of whom range in age from 25 to 35. Her goal: to
document the changes in attitudes that have taken place since the heyday
of the Canadian economic and cultural nationalism of her youth and to
demonstrate how the increased rate of technological change has
influenced the next generation’s sense of being Canadian.

Each of the book’s five chapters is issue-based. Chapter 1 deals
primarily with economic issues, such as wealth and poverty in Canada.
Chapter 2 looks at the culture industry, such as the Americanization of
Canadian culture and the increasing centralization of the media. Chapter
3 examines the latest generation’s challenge to feminism and the
flowering of alternative sexual and ethnic identities. Chapter 4 looks
at the ways in which Generation Next resists things like global
capitalism and considers their new forms of activism. Finally, Chapter 5
explores core Canadian social values and discusses what it means to have
a public good in Canada. The underlying theme that unites these chapters
is a concern with the impact of globalization on the Canadian nation.
Young Canadians are no longer looking to the Canadian nation-state for
security and protection, Kostash argues; they are looking globally and
redefining themselves as a result.

The Next Canada is perhaps most suited for those baby boomers who are
somewhat disoriented by the next generation’s many reactions to
large-scale technological and commercial change. It seeks to describe
Generation Next’s view of a future Canada and at the same time
reassure the reader that there is continuity between the radicalism of
the 1960s and ’70 and the attitudes of today.