As clerk of the House of Commons, Bourinot advised the speaker and other members of the house on parliamentary procedure; he also wrote the standard Canadian work on the subject. A founding member of the Royal Society of Canada, he played a leading role during the Society's first twenty years. Ahead of his time in writing intellectual history, Bourinot was also an early supporter of higher education for women. He was a man of contrasts, an early Canadian nationalist as well as an imperialist. In spite of the constitutional changes of 1982, there is still much in Bourinot's writing that is relevant today.
Shortly after Canadian confederation, Thomas D'Arcy McGee proclaimed that education was "an essential condition of our political independence" and that its role was to form citizens for the new regime. Comparing this idea of education for citizenship, or civic education, to the modern goals of education, Liberal Education, Civic Education, and the Canadian Regime explores the founders' principles, their sources, and the challenges that threaten their vision for Canada. The collection's first essays analyze the political thought of early Canadians such as Brown, McGee, Ryerson, and Bourinot, while later chapters examine enduring principles of liberal democracy derived from Aristotle, de Tocqueville, and Hobbes. The final chapters bring the discussion forward to such topics as the decline of Canadian Catholic liberal arts colleges and the emerging role of our Supreme Court as a self-appointed "moral tutor." Moreover, as it deals with the changing roles of universities in contemporary Canada, Liberal Education, Civic Education, and the Canadian Regime engages current debates about the value and place of a traditional liberal education and the consequences of turning our back on the concepts that inspired our founding leaders. Considering whether Canada’s early documents and traditions can revive past debates and shed light on contemporary issues, this highly original collection presents education as an essential condition of our independence and asks whether current educational principles are threatening Canadians’ capacity for self-government.
Canadian Confederation has long been assessed as a political moment that created a new national entity. This book breaks new ground by arguing that Confederation was an imperial event that generated new questions and ideas about the future of global political order.
Canada and the British Empire traces the evolution of Canada, placing it within the wider context of British imperial history. Beginning with a broad chronological narrative, the volume surveys the country's history from the foundation of the first British bases in Canada in the early seventeenth century, until the patriation of the Canadian constitution in 1982. Historians approach the subject thematically, analysing subjects such as British migration to Canada, the role played by gender in the construction of imperial identities, and the economic relationship between Canada and Britain. Other important chapters examine the history of Newfoundland, the history and legacy of imperial law, and the attitudes of French Canadians and Canada's aboriginal peoples to the imperial relationship. The overall focus of the book is on emphasising the part that Canada played in the British Empire, and on understanding the Canadian response towards imperialism. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, it is essential reading for anyone interested either in the history of Canada or in the history of the British Empire.
As one of the formative periods in Canadian history, the late nineteenth century witnessed the birth of a nation, a people, and a literature. In this study of Canada's first 'school' of poets, D.M.R. Bentley combines archival work, including extensive research in periodicals and newspapers, with close readings of the work of Charles G.D. Roberts, Archibald Lampman, Bliss Carman, William Wilfred Campbell, Duncan Campbell Scott, and Frederick George Scott. Bentley chronicles the formation, reception, national and international successes, and eventual disintegration (after the 1895 'War Among the Poets') of the Confederation Group, whose poetry forever changed the perception and direction of Canadian literature. With the aid of biographical, political, and sociological analyses, Bentley's literary history delineates the group's political, aesthetic, and thematic dispositions and characteristics, and contextualizes them not only within Canadian history and politics, but also within contemporary intellectual and literary currents, including Romantic nationalism, 'Canadianism', and poetic formalism. Bentley casts new light on the poets' commonalities - such as their debt to Young Ireland, their commitment to careful workmanship, and their participation in the American mind-cure movement - as well as on their most accomplished and anthologized poems from 1880 to 1897. In the process, he presents a compelling case for the literary and historical importance of these six men and their poems in light of Canada's cultural and political past, and defends their right to be known as Canada's first poetic fraternity at a time when Canada was striving to achieve literary and national distinction. The Confederation Group of Canadian Poets, 1880-1897 is an erudite and innovative work of literary history and critical interpretation that belongs on the bookshelf of every serious scholar of literary studies.
The Royal Society of Canada’s mandate is to elect to its membership leading scholars in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences, lending its seal of excellence to those who advance artistic and intellectual knowledge in Canada. Duncan Campbell Scott, one of the architects of the Indian residential school system in Canada, served as the society’s president and dominated its activities; many other members – historically overwhelmingly white men – helped shape knowledge systems rooted in colonialism that have proven catastrophic for Indigenous communities. Written primarily by current Royal Society of Canada members, these essays explore the historical contribution of the RSC and of Canadian scholars to the production of ideas and policies that shored up white settler privilege, underpinning the disastrous interaction between Indigenous peoples and white settlers. Historical essays focus on the period from the RSC’s founding in 1882 to the mid-twentieth century; later chapters bring the discussion to the present, documenting the first steps taken to change damaging patterns and challenging the society and Canadian scholars to make substantial strides toward a better future. The highly educated in Canadian society were not just bystanders: they deployed their knowledge and skills to abet colonialism. This volume dives deep into the RSC’s history to learn why academia has more often been an aid to colonialism than a force against it. Royally Wronged poses difficult questions about what is required – for individual academics, fields of study, and the RSC – to move meaningfully toward reconciliation.
Downtown Canada is a collection of essays that addresses Canada as an urban place. The contributors focus their attention on the writing of Canada's cities and call attention to the centrality of the city in Canadian literature.
As Canada came to terms with its role as an independent nation following Confederation in 1867, there was a call for a literary voice to express the needs and desires of a new country. Children’s literature was one of the means through which this new voice found expression. Seen as a tool for both entertaining and educating children, this material is often overtly propagandistic and nationalistic, and addresses some of the key political, economic, and social concerns of Canada as it struggled to maintain national unity during this time. From Nursery Rhymes to Nationhood studies a large variety of children’s literature written in English between 1867 and 1911, revealing a distinct interest in questions of national unity and identity among children’s writers of the day and exploring the influence of American and British authors on the shaping of Canadian identity. The visions of Canada expressed in this material are often in competition with one another, but together they illuminate the country’s attempts to define itself and its relation to the world outside its borders.
In The Constitution in a Hall of Mirrors, David E. Smith presents a learned but accessible analysis of the interconnectedness of Canada's parliamentary institutions.
