“Our authors…abandon the concept of British North America as defining the Canadian identity,” wrote left-wing Canadian intellectual and close friend of Lester B. Pearson, Frank Underhill, in 1966. “Our new Maple Leaf flag will, one hopes, be taken by future generations as the epoch-making symbol marking the end of the era of the Wasp domination of Canadian society.”
Red Ensigns were lowered, and anthems were scrapped. In their place, a new government policy of multiculturalism—a project meant to push back against English Canada.
A spectator holds up Canadian and Union Jack flags in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. Pawel Dwulit/The Canadian Press.
“The new stand-in for the lost Britannic tradition left some wondering whether multiculturalism was simply an attempt to paper over the vacuum in Anglo-Canadian identity,” writes Eric Kaufmann, professor of politics at the University of Buckingham.
The threats were also external. All-consuming American culture supplanted English Canadian culture. Ed Sullivan, Walter Cronkite, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and the shopping mall. We never stood a chance.
English Canada’s fate was to be hit by the American cultural tidal wave, submerged in multiculturalism, and finally, to be drowned by identity politics.
“No…sense of peoplehood survived the fall of Britannic nationalism,” says Kaufmann.
Je me souviens
Meanwhile, much of French Canadian identity would be protected (and heavily subsidized) at all costs, lest Quebec separate or disappear entirely. French Canadians’ separate language made it far more difficult for American influence to penetrate. They would not tolerate being demoted to only one of the many cultures in the new multiculturalism mosaic. They embedded themselves in senior government roles (aided by a policy of bilingualism) and crafted policy to defend their identity.
The rich Quebecois culture that was preserved in la belle province didn’t simply mirror France’s, but formed its own unique strands—folk music fiddling, Michel Tremblay novels, Just for Laughs chuckles, remote sugar shacks, Tout le monde en parle debates, and Bonhomme leg thrusts.
All that’s left
What remains of English Canadian culture today? If you search hard enough, you may be able to find the odd moss-covered plaque at a cemetery, see a tiny crown on a license plate, or hear the names of strange-sounding military regiments like “Dragoons” or “Grenadiers” announced on Remembrance Day.
When the 2010s arrived, it was English Canada that was exclusively in the crosshairs of activists. English Canadian figures were turned into villains, their statues toppled for their modern-day sins. Modern-day English figureheads suffered a similar cancelled fate. Shakespeare was erased from school curricula. The English anthem was changed yet again. Today, proponents of CANZUK are seen by many as deranged oddballs yelling at clouds about reviving a colonial era.
While English institutions remain—our parliament and courts—their origins go unappreciated and unexplored by the general public. Cities might bear the name Victoria, subway stops the name Runnymede, but most aren’t sure what they mean.
What actually remains of English Canada is hollow and superficial. Cheap knockoffs in the form of Firkin chain “pubs,” where you can take your picture next to a life-sized John Cleese painting.
But at least we still spell labour with a u…right?
To make matters worse, the U.K. doesn’t seem to care whether English Canada, or the shreds that are left, survives. When Trump first uttered his 51st state threats, they were met by a British prime minister who shamelessly kept his head down rather than coming to the defence of a historic ally.
Done and dusted
What was initially a bicultural country became a multicultural country with a heavily fortified French branch, which then turned to Indigenous Peoples to bolster its fragmented identity, desperate to provide some meaning for a population adrift.
Many of these new ingredients have been welcome additions to our rich Canadian stew-and were no doubt responses to the earlier domination and imposition of “Britishness.” But all too often, they have meant completely removing the English Canadian parts of the recipe. Something important, something historic, is now missing. The country is worse off for it.
Today, English Canada has been sacrificed. As George Grant predicted, it no longer exists. Neither do those government-provided portraits of your Queen (or King).
Harrison Lowman is The Hub's Managing Editor. He has worked for more than a decade in journalism, including at TVO’s The Agenda…
