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Political Science History & Theory

Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity

by (author) Raymond B. Blake

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jun 2024
Category
History & Theory, Post-Confederation (1867-), Canadian
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774869669
    Publish Date
    Jun 2024
    List Price
    $49.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774869638
    Publish Date
    Jun 2024
    List Price
    $49.95

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Description

Since Confederation, Canadian prime ministers have consciously constructed the national story. Each created shared narratives, formulating and reformulating a series of unifying national ideas that served to keep this geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation together. This book is about those narratives and stories.

 

Focusing on the post–Second World War period, Raymond B. Blake shows how, regardless of political stripe, prime ministers worked to build national unity, forged a citizenship based on inclusion, and defined a place for Canada in the world. They created for citizens an ideal image of what the nation stood for and the path it should follow. They told a national story of Canada as a modern, progressive, liberal state with a strong commitment to inclusion, a deep respect for diversity and difference, and a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Ultimately, this innovative history provides readers with a new way to see and understand what Canada is, and what holds us together as a nation.

About the author

Raymond B. Blake is Professor of History at the University of Regina and formerly Director of the Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy. His books include Trajectories of Rural Life: New Perspectives on Rural Canada, co-edited with Andrew Nurse (2003), and Canadians at Last: Canada Integrates Newfoundland as a Province (1994 and 2004).

Raymond B. Blake's profile page

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