Canadianism, Anglo-Canadian Identities and the Crisis of Britishness, 1964-1968
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Nova Britannia Revisited: Canadianism, Anglo-Canadian Identities and the Crisis of Britishness, 1964-1968 C. P. Champion Department of History McGill University, Montreal A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History February 2007 © Christian Paul Champion, 2007 Table of Contents Dedication ……………………………….……….………………..………….…..2 Abstract / Résumé ………….……..……….……….…….…...……..………..….3 Acknowledgements……………………….….……………...………..….…..……5 Obiter Dicta….……………………………………….………..…..…..….……….6 Introduction …………………………………………….………..…...…..….….. 7 Chapter 1 Canadianism and Britishness in the Historiography..….…..………….33 Chapter 2 The Challenge of Anglo-Canadian ethnicity …..……..…….……….. 62 Chapter 3 Multiple Identities, Britishness, and Anglo-Canadianism ……….… 109 Chapter 4 Religion and War in Anglo-Canadian Identity Formation..…..……. 139 Chapter 5 The celebrated rite-de-passage at Oxford University …….…...…… 171 Chapter 6 The courtship and apprenticeship of non-Wasp ethnic groups….….. 202 Chapter 7 The “Canadian flag” debate of 1964-65………………………..…… 243 Chapter 8 Unification of the Canadian armed forces in 1966-68……..….……. 291 Conclusions: Diversity and continuity……..…………………………….…….. 335 Bibliography …………………………………………………………….………347 Index……………………………………………………………………………...384 1 For Helena-Maria, Crispin, and Philippa 2 Abstract The confrontation with Britishness in Canada in the mid-1960s is being revisited by scholars as a turning point in how the Canadian state was imagined and constructed. During what the present thesis calls the “crisis of Britishness” from 1964 to 1968, the British character of Canada was redefined and Britishness portrayed as something foreign or “other.” This post-British conception of Canada has been buttressed by historians depicting the British connection as a colonial hangover, an externally-derived, narrowly ethnic, nostalgic, or retardant force. However, Britishness, as a unique amalgam of hybrid identities in the Canadian context, in fact took on new and multiple meanings. Historians have overlooked ethnic and cultural nuances among the various ethnicities—English, Scots, Irish, etc. The role of Britishness as a constitutive and animating element embedded in the Canadianism of hybridized individuals and groups, and not only those of British ethnicity, has been neglected. Significantly, it was members, almost all male, of an Anglo-Celtic core ethnie, some of whom had made the pilgrimage to Oxford University, who carried out the othering process, the portrayal of Britishness as something that was not truly Canadian—introducing a new national flag, for example, with French Canadians and non-British ethnic groups largely sidelined. At the same time, the neo-aristocracy within this core ethnie did not so much abandon its heritage as assign to it a new and less public role that they regarded as “distinctively Canadian.” If the overt Britishness of the Red Ensign was downgraded, the new flag was a less dramatic break with the past than is commonly assumed. In a sense, Anglo-Canadians implemented the kind of local change and development foreseen by liberal theorists of Empire, who saw in the Res Britannica an evolving association of diverse elements and nationalisms that represented a fulfillment, rather than a rejection, of Britishness. With all of its fusions, hybridities, and continuities, the Res Canadiana, envisioned as distinctively Canadian, remains the product of a British world. Résumé Les spécialistes repensent la confrontation avec la britannicité au Canada au milieu des années 60, la considérant comme un tournant dans la façon dont l'état canadien a été imaginé et construit. Entre 1964 et 1968, pendant ce que ce thèse nomme « la crise de britannicité », le caractère britannique du Canada fut redéfini et la britannicité envisagée comme quelque chose étranger ou « autre ». Cette conception post-britannique du Canada fut soutenue par des historiens qui représentaient le lien avec la Grande- Bretagne comme reliquat de l’époque coloniale, une force dérivée de l’externe, étroitement ethnique, nostalgique, ou retardataire. Cependant, la britannicité, comme fusion unique des identités hybrides dans le contexte canadien, a en fait pris des significations nouvelles et multiples. Les historiens ont négligé les nuances ethniques et culturelles parmi les diverses appartenances ethniques, anglais, écossais, irlandais, etc. Le rôle de la britannicité comme un élément constitutif et animant comme élément du 3 « Canadianisme » des individus et des groupes hybridés, et non seulement ceux de l'appartenance ethnique britannique, ne fut pas pris en considération. Fait révélateur, ce furent des membres, presque tous mâles, dont l’ethnie centrale était anglo-celtique, bon nombre desquels ont fait le pèlerinage à l'université d'Oxford, qui furent responsables de ce processus de transformation en autre, de la représentation de la britannicité comme quelque chose de ne pas vraiment canadien; par exemple, en introduisant un nouveau drapeau national, tout en tenant à l’écart les canadiens français et les groupes ethniques non-britanniques. En même temps, la néo-aristocratie de cette ethnie centrale n'abandonna pas son héritage comme tel mais plutôt lui assigna un rôle nouveau et moins public qu'ils considérèrent « distinctement Canadien ». Si la britannicité manifeste du Pavillon rouge était dévalorisée, le nouveau drapeau était une rupture avec le passé moins dramatique qu'en est généralement supposé. Dans un sens, les anglo-canadiens ont mis en application le genre de changement local et de développement prévu par les théoriciens libéraux de l'empire, qui ont vu dans le Res Britannica une association d’éléments et de nationalismes divers en évolution qui représenta une réalisation, plutôt qu'un rejet, de la britannicité. Avec toutes ses fusions, ses hybridations, et ses continuités, le Res Canadiana, envisagé comme distinctement Canadien, demeure le produit d'un monde britannique. 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the several librarians and archival assistants who retrieved materials for me at institutions in Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston, Vancouver, and Montreal. John Zucchi and Carman Miller, my thesis supervisors, have been helpful throughout. I am also grateful to have been able to discuss the ideas in this thesis with Hereward Senior, formerly of the History Department. Thanks also to Jonathan Vance, the external examiner, for his helpful comments. A thesis is seldom the work of one person; the suggestions and advice of friends and colleagues become merged in the finished product. I should like to acknowledge the comments and corrections of a dozen anonymous readers of versions of Chapters 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in the peer review and editing process for publication in the Canadian Historical Review, Canadian Ethnic Studies, the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, the Journal of Canadian Studies, and the British Journal of Canadian Studies during 2005-07. To my wife, Helena-Maria, is owed the greatest debt for her patience and encouragement during the three and a half years in which my Ph.D. field work and this dissertation were completed. I am grateful to my father, Paul Champion, and my late mother, Tineke, both immigrants to this particular Nova Britannia, for instilling an interest in the subject. Thanks also to my parents-in-law, Jean and Bernard Pothier, for their hospitality during many research visits to Ottawa. To maintain a sense of proportion, so easily lost sight of in the academic setting, I quote from the Divine Office: Benedicamus Domino. Deo Gratias. C.P. Champion Montreal February 2007 5 Obiter Dicta The task of those [living] today is the development of the heritage already secured by those who went before. —King George VI in Canada, 1939 Canada is perpetually divided between the forces of history and geography, tradition and environment. All the public symbols, such as flag and king, represent tradition… —A.R.M. Lower We first saw light in Canada, the land beloved of God; / We are the pulse of Canada, its marrow and its blood; / And we, the men of Canada, can face the world and brag / That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag. —Pauline Johnson What if four-colour flags fly over Johannesburg, and Kangaroos over Canberra, and Maple Leafs over Ottawa? The Union Jack floats beside every one of them. —Stephen Leacock Education in England spoils so many Canadians—except Rhodes Scholars who come back and get Government jobs right away. —Robertson Davies A native of Kingston, Ont./ —two grandparents Canadian … / for three years he attended / Oxford / Now his accent / makes even Englishmen / wince, and feel / unspeakably colonial. —Irving Layton The issue lay between those who wanted Canada’s symbols to be British and those who wanted them to be Canadian. —Blair Fraser All states that claim to be nations have skeletons in their cupboards, stained with fratricidal blood. —John Lonsdale and Atieno Odhiambo The natural place of an exceptional man is to be leading his own people and helping them to bear their burdens. Your exceptional brain is serving the nation best if it remains racy of its own particular soil. —Sir Halford Mackinder 6 Introduction When John Diefenbaker wrote to a supporter, in November 1964, that the Liberals were “a government determined to bring down all of our traditions,”1 he was only half right. The minority government of Lester B. Pearson was inventing new traditions to replace the old. Pearson said the proposal for