Canadian Nationalism: An Historical Approach

Abstract

T HE great seed-bed of nationalism in the Americas was the Revolution of the Thirteen Colonies. This is obvious in the case of the Latin American countries which drew so much of their inspiration not only from the North American War for Independence but from the Declaration of Independence and the pattern of the American Constitution. It is not so obvious in the case of Canada whose still disunited colonies of that day reacted against the Revolution, and whose advance to full nationhood followed a path very different from that of the other twenty-one American nations. Nevertheless the important elements of Canadian nationalism were present during the Revolutionary period, even if in embryonic form, and an understanding of Canadian nationalism today will be made clearer by a reference to them. The oldest and most firmly rooted element was that of the French Canadians of the Province of Quebec, Les Canadiens de la Nouvelle France, brought by conquest under the British flag and crown. In I763 they numbered only some 6o,ooo but already they were a compact, thoroughly acclimatized Canadien society with a tenacious and happy peasantry, a devoted if provincially-minded parish clergy, and an intelligent, welltrained even if small elite of clergy, lawyers, and seigneurs. Those wishing to do so had returned to France by their free choice, offered by the British Government, and from that day Les Canadiens have been committed completely to life in the New World and to the ideal of 'survivance' in a North America dominated by an overwhelming English-speaking majority. Only a tenuous cultural tie with France remained, and although at times it has had some significance among the educated, especially during the past seventy-five years, it has never been a fundamental source of French Canada's strength. Love of soil, Church, -and language have been the bulwarks of French-Canadian culture, and in particular the Church has been the one institution to which French Canada could look for inspiration and guidance. The rationalism and paganism of the French Revolution destroyed almost completely any lingering loyalties to Old France after I763. It was not strange that the bells of Quebec rang to mark the defeat of Napoleon. All this goes far to explain later French-Canadian attitudes not only toward the British connexion, but toward the Confederation agreement 1 This paper was originally prepared for the Conference on Commonwealth Studies arranged by the British Council at Oxford from 29 June to IO July I953, and is reproduced, with some small amendments, with the concurrence of the British Council. i66