The Intellectual Construction of Canada’s “Peaceable Kingdom” Ideal

Abstract

The linkages between myth, public memory, and the construction of nationalism are profound. Since the nineteenth century, historians, intellectuals, and politicians have reflected, critiqued, and shaped the enduring notion that Canadians have constructed a “peaceable kingdom” in North America. Although the subject matter and thrust of their efforts varied dramatically, the ease in which the peaceable kingdom became embraced suggests that by the early twentieth-first century the ideal is firmly entrenched as part of Canada’s cultural and scholarly orientation. Its persistence can be explained to a great degree because it has proven to be remarkably elastic; its appeal reaches across ideological and cultural divides. This article explores two intriguing paradoxes related to these developments. First, the peaceable kingdom ideal often chafes against the country’s narrative because from the earliest moments of European contact with Indigenous peoples through to the recent past with the country’s participation in the Afghanistan war, Canadians have engaged in violent episodes and armed conflict. Second, even historians and other scholars who argue against the substance of the peaceable kingdom idea are prone to using the myth as a popular reference to draw attention to their work or frame their research.