Beyond multinational Canada

Abstract

In this article, the authors argue that the particular understanding of nations and nationalism underpinning the work of the ‘Canada School’ of multinational federalists leads them to ignore important aspects of ethno-national conflict. To support this point, the authors return to the case of Canada and apply a nuanced understanding of nations and nationalism. This brings to light a more complex picture of ethno-national conflict and a number of implications that need to be addressed by the theory and policy of ethno-national conflict management. To conclude, the authors suggest that both distributive and structural mechanisms should be used depending on the context of a particular case, rather than importing the federal model promoted by the Canada School wholesale.