Survival, But With Paradox

-Canadian Nationalism Policy-making in the 1970s and 1980s Survival, or la Survivance, has been the central symbol for Canada, while nationalism, as an essential component of patriotism, plays a pivotal role in ensuring that survival and to articulate Canadian identity. The Canadian research tradition, however, holds a suspicious eye for conversion of nationalism on federal policy-making in Canada, in view of the strong continental pull springing from Canada's geographic proximity to the U.S. in an era of American empire following WWII.Many critics have long argued that Canadian nationalism is paramount in policy-making since the Founding of Confederation with the National Policy proposed by Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, while others contend vehemently that nationalism merely exists as an influential ideology, which has long confronted insurmountable obstacles in converting itself into action on the political stage. To identify causes of that discrepancy, the author of the thesis traces the long history of nationalism in Canada, and its evolution during the post-war years. After detailed studies about the process of conversion of nationalist ideas into political action, the author of the thesis is thus convinced that nationalism has also successfully converted itself into political action and undauntedly resisted the free trade with the U.S. Building upon that, the author of the thesis argues that Canadian policy-making in the 1970s and 1980s stillaimed at ensuring its survival and at achieving greater autonomy. What emerges out as unfamiliar is that the policy-making is marked by a perceptible paradoxical combination of nationalism for independence and continental pull toward integration, given the historic complexity of the 1970s and 1980s, when Canada faced a formidable economic prospect, the challenge from Alberta and increased American spillover, in an age of looming economic integration worldwide. Correspondingly, that mission for nationalism was further toughened.Three cases are examined here with great details to identify the influence of nationalism. To make the argument manageable, the key factor approach is employed to evaluate influence of nationalism on policy-making in three fields of critical importance, namely, culture, investment and trade. In view of failure of conventional approaches to explain the timing and rollback of the cases, an integrative perspective is introduced here instead of traditional societal perspective and bureaucratic perspective to illustrate influence of nationalism on policy-making in the 1970s and 1980s. Building upon that, the author thus argues that nationalism has not only long existed as a forceful ideology, but also converted itself into federal actions on the political stage and resisted the free trade agreement dauntlessly, while recognizing its fragility and vulnerability in confronting continentalism. In viewing the nationalist's failure to oppose the comprehensive free trade agreement with the U.S., the author maintains that it rightly testifies to its vulnerability. It, however, would be lamentably mistaken to identify that failure as demise of nationalism. Rather, it once again illustrates the fragility of nationalism andshould be interpreted as an indication of the shift in the Canadian public opinion from fear to faith, and an important departure of the federal government from the traditional trade policy in a new historic context. The whole thesis falls into five chapters.Chapter One first defines what nationalism means in Canadian context, and then traces the long history of nationalism from 'Allegiance' in its early stage to pan-Canadianism in the 1970s and the 1980s. There are three branches of Canadian nationalism, namely, cultural nationalism, investment nationalism and trade nationalism. Secondly, three research propositions are also introduced with brief explanationsChapter Two focuses on the first case study, namely, Time/Reader's Digest Bill in the field of cultural nationalism. In the course of analysi...