The image of the “land” is an ongoing trope in conceptions of Canada—from the national anthem and the flag to the symbols on coins—the land and nature remain linked to the Canadian sense of belonging and to the image of the nation abroad. Linguistic landscapes reflect the multi-faceted identities and cultural richness of the nations. Earlier portrayals of the land focused on unspoiled landscape, depicted in the paintings of the Group of Seven, for example. Contemporary notions of identity, belonging, and citizenship are established, contested, and legitimized within sites and institutions of public culture, heritage, and representation that reflect integration with the land, transforming landscape into landmarks. The Highway of Heroes originating at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario and Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site in Québec are examples of landmarks that transform landscape into a built environment that endeavours to respect the land while using it as a site to commemorate, celebrate, and promote Canadian identity. Similarly in literature and the arts, the creation of the built environment and the interaction among those who share it is a recurrent theme.
This collection includes essays by Canadian and international scholars whose engagement with the theme stems from their disciplinary perspectives as well as from their personal and professional experience—rooted, at least partially, in their own sense of national identity and in their relationship to Canada.

Caitríona Ní Chasaide is a lecturer at Limerick Institute of Technology. Her research looks at second- and third-language acquisition from a sociolinguistic perspective. She also has a particular interest in immersion education. She is a former secretary of the Association of Canadian Studies in Ireland.

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Jane Koustas, professor of French at Brock University, was the Craig Dobbin Professor of Canadian Studies at University College Dublin. She is the co-editor, with Christl Verduyn, of Canadian Studies: Past, Present, Praxis and, with Joe Donohoe, of Robert Lepage: Théàtre sans frontières: Essays on the Dramatic Universe of Robert Lepage. She is the author of Les belles étrangères : Canadians in Paris.

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Maeve Conrick is a professor and former principal of the UCD College of Arts and Humanities, University College Dublin. She has published extensively in books, journals, and edited collections in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, with particular reference to French and English. She is a former president of the Association for Canadian Studies in Ireland and recipient of the Prix du Québec. In 2017 she was awarded the Governor General's International Award in Canadian Studies.

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Munroe Eagles is Professor of Political Science and Geography at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His primary research interests are in the field of electoral and political geography, and in the politics of advanced industrial democracies. He has published numerous journal articles on these topics and is the author, with R. Kenneth Carty, of Politics is Local: National Politics at the Grassroots (Oxford University Press, 2005).

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