Britishness, Canadianness, Class, and Race: Winnipeg and the British World, 1880s-1910s

Abstract

Recently historians of the British Empire have argued that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a large number of European-descended Canadians understood themselves as part of a "British world," a transnational community of men and women whose members shared a common set of values and institutions whether they were located in Winnipeg, Sydney, Auckland, or Cape Town. These scholars argue thinking about Canada as a part of this British world is important because it recognizes that they self-consciously acted as part of a broader geopolitics, and because it provides a corrective to imperial historians’ tendency over the past several decades to overemphasize subjection, exploitation, and coercion. Placing the history of Canada (and also New Zealand and Australia) at the centre of the story, they suggest, shows that a broad allegiance to the British Crown was the glue that held the empire together. This article critically assesses the British world strategy for bringing the empire back into Canadian history, and for bringing Canada back into imperial history, by considering British identity in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It argues that while British world scholars have identified vitally important, and under-appreciated and understudied aspects of Canadian history, they have also understated the extent to which exploitation, subjugation, and coercion were central to identity and identity formation.