Thinking English Canada
... is some autonomy for each of the nationalities in linguistic and cultural matters. This seems to be the way Switzerland approaches things in their federation. In Canada, French-Canadians have often thought of themselves as just trying to survive. However, it does not mean that the majority of Quebecois feel no affiliation to Canada, or that they have been oppressed throughout their history, if that was the case there would have been a lot more support for Quebec sovereignty in the 1980 referendum. When looking at Canada as a Sociological nation Resnick comes up with six elements that he wants to emphasize in imagining English Canada. The first one is that the language of English Canada is of course, English. It’s something that unifies us and separates English Canada from francophone Quebec. Another characteristic of English Canada is the territory we occupy, the northern part of North America, touching three oceans, and the mythology of a harsh climate with endless winters, tundra, and shield with which Canadians like to regale themselves. English Canadian society has a spirit of live and let live and we’re known as a lot more peaceful than a lot of others as there is a lot less ethnic hatred than seen elsewhere. Canada in contrast to the United States and France is founded on “peace, order, and good government” as it says in section 91 of the British North America Act. One major problem in dealing with English Canada is the regional diversity. We can deal with this by emphasizing the things that English Canadians share after living together in a single state for the past 137 years or by recognizing that regional perspectives have colored visions of nation and country in the past and that would be the same for any imagining of English Canada. The last element in imagining English Canada is our view of our place in the world. We sometimes appear to play no role, and other times we have a strong internationalist current at work. He takes a look at the three current political strains in English Canada. The Conservative strain is based on tradition, its key values are order and stability, it wants a natural hierarchy of groups, cooperation and harmony, and shows a strong obligation towards others. The Liberal strain is based on reason, its key values are freedom and political equality, it wants to have equal individuals freely competing and some conflict is ok, and their obligation to others is weak. The Social Democratic strain is based on reason, its key values are economic equality, it wants to have unnatural hierarchy of economic classes, need for cooperation and harmony, and their obligation to others is strong. Not only does Resnick look at French nationality, he also looks at the aboriginal peoples. The history of the aboriginals in Canada has not been a totally happy one. There are still very poor living conditions in many aboriginal communities. Resnick is open to self-government for the aboriginals, as in he is open to economic transfers of resources to aboriginal peoples in what would be a recognition of their distinct national status in Canada. Recognition of aboriginal rights would represent an affirmation of our better political traditions. Aboriginals would still be a part of Canadian political institutions and the limitation to certain geographic areas for aboriginals would reduce the potential for conflict. Looking at multicultarism, Resnick is generally sympathetic towards the needs and wants of people of other cultures. But there’s must be some limitations on things like official languages, because outside of Quebec English is the dominant language in Canada. Certain political traditions and values must be upheld by these immigrants, and one solution for preserving their culture is to have ethnic communities throughout Canada. Multicultarism in English Canada can be viewed as divisive and also unifying at the same time. It may be more divisive for English Canadians as they see French Canadians as part of their multicultural Canada. Not only do we have to look at nationalism in Canada but also regionalism. Regionalism is caused by many reasons like the vastness of Canada, political culture, and the division of Can...