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Political Culture in Manitoba Jared Wesley Department of Political Studies University of Manitoba [email protected] Paper for Presentation at: The Duff Roblin Professorship Conference on Manitoba Politics, Government and Policy in the 21st Century University of Manitoba November 21, 2008 Working Draft Comments Welcome Please do not cite without permission. Political Culture in Manitoba Jared Wesley Political Culture in Manitoba Introduction Compared with the popular impression of other Canadian provinces, Manitoba’s political culture remains undeveloped in the minds of many observers. Saskatchewan is home to the country’s collectivist, social democratic traditions, for instance, whereas Alberta is the bastion of Canadian populism, individualism, and Western alienation (Stewart and Archer 2000: 13; Marchildon 2005: 4). Even in the most trained minds, Manitoba enjoys no comparable identity. In the words of Rand Dyck (1996: 381), the author of a leading undergraduate textbook on Canadian provincial politics, Manitoba is a province without a distinctive political culture. If Manitobans have a self-image, it is probably one of a moderate, medium, diversified, and fairly prosperous but unspectacular province. Many value its ethnic heterogeneity; others, its intermediary position on federal- provincial affairs, interpreting east to east and vice versa.1 Dyck is not alone. Many define Manitoba by its ambiguous mediocrity, rather than any unique political personality. These conclusions are drawn quite easily. Manitoba is the “Keystone Province,” after all; it is the geographic centre of North America, the “Heart of the Continent,” and the buffer between the “Old” country of the east and Canada’s “New West.” Its population and economy are among the country’s most diverse, and both are of average size. Relative to other major Canadian centers, even its capital city, Winnipeg, is viewed as a “balance between exotic and obscure” (Read 2008). In short, Manitoba is Canada’s “middling” province, positioned between prosperous and poor, east and west, old and new, exciting and bland. Yet, such views distort the notion of “political culture,” and misconceive the precise nature of Manitoba politics. Indeed, the province “is more than a fuzzy middle ground where the East ends and the West begins” (Marshall 1970). It has its own, distinctive political ethos, which is grounded in the very concepts of modesty and moderation that make up its popular “middleman” image. 1 “Manitoba has in many ways become Canada’s median or average province. The ‘gateway to the West,’ it is centrally located and traditionally served as the location where eastern manufactured goods were exchanged for western raw materials. In modern times, the decline of railways, the advent of air travel and telecommunications, and the emergence of substantial manufacturing capacity in the West have reduced Manitoba’s role in interprovincial trade. It is still the median province in terms of size, and is more advanced economically than the Atlantic region but behind the three richest provinces. It has a relatively balanced economy, not being identified with any particular industry, and is somewhat ‘average’ in terms of its ethnic distribution, with a medium-sized francophone community” (Dyck 1996: 373). - 1 - Political Culture in Manitoba Jared Wesley Modesty and Moderation Some regard it as a form of prudent pragmatism – an unpretentious, unassuming, conciliatory approach to politics that holds as its principal goal the accommodation of diversity, the preservation of order and tradition, and the protection of Manitoba’s median position in Confederation. Others view the province’s culture as a brand of prudish pessimism – a sign of Manitobans’ quiescence on divisive issues or reticence on the national stage. Some see humility and realism in Manitoba’s political culture, where others see meekness and resignation. Whatever the case, there is little doubt that Manitoba has always been “a land of steady ways” in which “the simple, sturdy virtues of hard work, thrift an neighbourliness have been cherished and transmitted” (Morton 1967: viii). As Morton (1967: viii-ix) wrote four decades ago, …if it is too much to assert that a Manitoban can be recognized abroad, it is still true that life in Manitoba forces a common manner, not to say character on all its people. It is the manner, or mannerism of instant understanding and agreeableness at meeting, and rises from the need for harmony in a society of many diverse elements. This superficial friendliness is common to all North Americans, of course, but in Manitoba, a truly plural society, it is a definite and highly conscious art. Reflecting these tendencies, Manitobans, “though driven to strike out in new ways in politics, [have] remained fast wedded to the old ways in manners and morals” (Morton 1967: 382). In this sense, Manitoba politics have featured a stronger strain of traditionalism than Canada’s other two prairie provinces.2 This tendency is embodied in the province’s political culture of modesty and moderation – a shared sense of identity that has both reflected and shaped the community’s political evolution. To elaborate on this view, this chapter begins by exploring the term “political culture,” which is defined as a system of common values that determine a community’s approach toward politics. Discussion then turns to the main characteristics of political culture in a community like Manitoba: its collective symbols. In its flag, mottos, logos, license plates, institutions and myths, we find that Manitoba’s political culture is decidedly – and avowedly – modest and moderate. This begs the obvious question: How did Manitoba develop these tendencies? Three, related explanations are offered, suggesting that the province’s political culture may be traced to its original settlement patterns, a series of formative (and transformative) events throughout its history, and the nature of the Manitoba economy. A concluding section explores the effects of Manitoba political culture on the province’s politics, in general, noting its impact on individual residents and their elites. In the end, the modesty and moderation embedded in their shared ethos shapes the way Manitobans define and solve their major challenges. They have a political culture, it is distinctive, and it matters. 2 “Manitoba has certainly been more conservative than the radical, populist provinces to its west” (Dyck 1996: 382). - 2 - Political Culture in Manitoba Jared Wesley Political Culture Scholars have struggled to define a term as “popular,” “seductive,” and “controversial” as political culture (Elkins and Simeon 1979: 127-128). The concept, itself, is by no means novel. In writing about the differences between the customs, mores and habits of nineteenth-century Americans and Europeans, Alexis de Tocqueville (1956 [1840]) became one of the first, modern political culturalists. (Karl Marx’s discussions of the capitalist superstructure, and Weber’s exposition of the Protestant Ethic also qualify as early works in this genre.) Over time, the concept has become associated with a wide range of topics, from “political values” or “ideology,” to “national character” or “mentalité.” While many researchers feel that the concept is capable of evoking such “quick intuitive understanding” that they need not provide a definition at all (Formisano 2001: 394-396), for others, defining political culture is rather like “trying to nail Jell-O to the wall” (in Dalton 2000: 914). Precisely what is it? For the purposes of this chapter, political culture is defined as a set of common values underpinning a given political system. In this vein, a community’s political culture is akin to a guiding “ethos” – the spirit of a society that informs its political beliefs, customs and practices. It is a collection of unstated, implicit assumptions about politics, a fact that distinguishes political culture from the more explicit and contested nature of “ideology” (Almond 1956).3 This is what makes studying political culture so challenging: there is no single book or tract, author or philosopher, to which students may turn for the definition of a community’s culture. Instead, these guiding values are embodied in the polity’s shared symbols, entrenched in its institutions, echoed in the attitudes of its residents, and reflected in the behaviour of its citizens. Because it is so deeply embedded, political culture is an enduring feature of any political community. According to a popular analogy, political culture is to public opinion as climate is to weather – the former is long-term and stable, while the latter is short-term and ephemeral. 3 To some, political culture is little more than a popular (or dominant) political ideology – one shared by, or at least governing the political life of, an entire community (see Kornberg, Mishler, and Clarke 1982: 53- 58). The relationship between political culture and ideology is more complicated, however. While there may be parallels between a particular ideology and a given political culture, the two concepts are not synonymous. “From the outset, political culture was intended as a broader concept with wider application than ideology. Political culture involves the study of all segments of society, including members of the general public whose ideas about politics are insufficiently coherent and programmatic to be called ideological. Moreover a single political culture could comprise several ideologies” (Bell 2000: 279). Wiseman (2002: 217) captures the primary

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