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The Politics of Participation: Learning from Canada's Centennial Year Helen Davies

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The Politics of Participation: Learning from Canada's Centennial Year Helen Davies The Politics of Participation: Learning from Canada’s Centennial Year Helen Davies n.2 The Politics of Participation: Learning from Canada’s Centennial Year Helen Davies masslbp.com 1 First published in 2010 Open access. Some rights reserved. © MASS LBP and Helen Davies Some rights reserved. As the publisher of this work, MASS LBP wants to 392A King Street East encourage the circulation of this text while retaining Toronto, Ontario the copyright with the author. We therefore have Canada M5R 3B2 an open access policy which enables anyone to 1 800 369 7136 access our content online without charge. Anyone can download, save, perform or distribute this work ISBN 978-0-9811005-0-2 in any format, including translation, without written Series design by Concrete Design permission provided that the following conditions Set in Helvetica Neue LT Pro are met: and Baskerville Pro Cover paper: Cascades Cover 80 MASS LBP and the author are credited. Text paper: Cascades Natural 60 This summary and the address www.masslbp.com (FSC Mixed Sources) are displayed. The text is not altered and is used in full. The work is not resold A copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to MASS LBP. MASS LBP gratefully acknowledges the work of Creative Commons in inspiring our approach to copyright. To find out more, go to: www.creativecommons.org This publication is produced in partnership with The Institute of the Public Administration of Canada Contents 7 Preface 13 Introduction 34 Planning the Party of a Century 57 Canadians Catch Centennial Fever: Promoting Canadian Identity 82 Out of the Past: The Future 101 A Fair to Remember: Expo 67 118 Centennial RSVP 141 Conclusion 150 Notes 175 Bibliography Foreword Remarkably, this is the first scholarly publication to examine the history of Canada’s Centennial year. Given the outsized influence 1967 had on the Canadian psyche, we felt this publication was long overdue. What does Helen Davies have to teach us? Three lessons chiefly. First, it wasn’t government that led the way to 1967. It was citizens. Many of the programs and ideas that came to define the Centennial emerged from the Centennial conference and voluntary council organized by Freda Waldon and John P. Kidd. Today, in an era of declining civic engagement, the Centennial is an example of how citizens can become equal and enthusiastic partners to government. Two, a large measure of the Centennial’s success was due to the fact that organizers in Ottawa resisted the temptation to prescribe an over- arching theme, or a single vision of Canada’s past, its future or its identity. Instead, the verb ‘learn’ often appeared in official promotions where any other country would determinedly print the verb ‘celebrate’. Framing the Centennial as an opportunity to learn about one another, one’s neighbours and one’s country was an important and subtle turn which helped Cana- dians to overcome their historic anxieties and focus instead on deepening their knowledge and appreciation for each other. Much of the Centennial’s success can be attributed to it being staged as a nation-wide opportunity for learning. Three, the Centennial drew together culture and politics and stimu- lated our sense of public imagination. As a manufactured event, Centen- nial became an occasion to think strategically and ask, as a country at 100, Where are we? Where are we going? and How should we get there? This opportunity for public visioning may be chief among its legacies. It provided the impetus to build new infrastructure, establish sweeping new social programs and redefine ourselves in increasingly modern, confident and cosmopolitan terms. As the next major anniversary approaches — our Sesquicentennial in 2017 — Davies’ book is an important and impressive guide to understand- ing the Centennial’s success. It reminds us why a modest nation might have missed the event altogether and then woke up and decided to sing. Peter MacLeod Gabriel Sékaly Principal, MASS LBP CEO, IPAC masslbp.com 5 Preface 6 Preface Everyone has a story to tell. During the !"#$ Centennial year, Cana- dians across the country took time to share and celebrate their own personal and collective stories, painting a picture of a vibrant, dynamic country coming of age. %e decade was one of transition. With the emergence of a strong youth culture, growing women’s movement and an evolving relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, it was a period of change, with new voices surfacing and contributing to the national dialogue. As well, due to regulatory reforms during the period, immigration to Can- ada increased, leading to a greater diversity of perspectives, lived experiences and stories. My family was part of the wave of new Canadians that immi- grated to Canada during the !"#&s. Arriving in the fall of !"#', we missed the Centennial year, and my parents were particularly dis- appointed that they had not been able to visit Expo #$, a )agship event they had heard much about. Like so many before us and, no doubt, after us, my family arrived in Canada with a particular vision of the country and what it meant to be Canadian, but as we travelled across the country by train from Montreal to Edmonton and then to our destination of Lac La Biche, a small northern Alberta town, we soon came to appreciate that there were many stories, a variety of Canadian experiences and social realities. How could there possibly be one, all-encompassing story? Organizers of the !"#$ Centennial were acutely aware of this chal- lenge. During a period of what some have characterized as increas- ing social instability, the Centennial year a*orded an opportunity to commemorate the past as well as celebrate the future and recog- nize the successes of the younger generation. Importantly, it also provided an occasion to rea+rm national pride and take stock as Canadians prepared for a bright future. While not wanting to promote a “formless jumble of individual 7 projects,”! o+cials were of the view that the year-long celebration should not focus solely on the past or the political act of Confeder- ation., Early in the planning stages, o+cials recognized the politi- cal sensitivities surrounding the national event, and acknowledged that “[t]he o+cial side of the Centennial programme should not dominate to the point where grass-roots participation is hampered, but rather [that] the o+cial organization would aim to stimulate and facilitate such grass-roots activity.”- %e plan was “to contin- ue to build a community with diverse interests,” for this was, in the view of one senior o+cial, “the distinctive and real quality of Canada.”. Additionally, given the rather abstract nature of the occasion, organizers believed it was important to frame Centennial in a way that was tangible and meaningful for Canadians who may have felt removed from the distant historical event. %erefore, it made sense to adopt a strategy that encouraged Canadians to celebrate the anniversary in their own particular way. By not limiting how peo- ple should celebrate or, for that matter, what they should celebrate, planners encouraged Canadians to express their enthusiasm and pride in whatever way was most signi/cant to them. %is was unset- tling for some o+cials, as they were concerned that the approach would serve to amplify regional loyalties lead to disagreement and potential con)ict, thereby undermining the primary goals of Cen- tennial as a mechanism to reinforce national unity and a sense of shared identity. In fact, there were occasions during the Centennial year when Canadians did disagree or at least shared di*erent perspectives and opinions. For example, the Indian pavilion at Expo #$ invited visi- tors to re)ect on the Aboriginal experience, presenting a vision that was decidedly di*erent from the idealized and often narrow, stereotyped views that many Canadians held. Similarly, Madame Solange Chaput-Rolland, who had secured funding through the Centennial publishing program to write a diary capturing her views of Canada as seen by a French Canadian, declared, only eight days into her cross-Canada tour, that her country was “decidedly Que- bec.”0 Particularly disturbing to her was what she perceived to be the indi*erence of English Canadians. In these and other instanc- es, Centennial provided a space to share a perspective that devi- ated from the o+cial script, a*ording Canadians an opportunity to explore ideas and viewpoints that did not always conform to Preface 8 the mainstream vision. Rather than provoke discord and entrench regionalism, Centennial served as a platform for Canadians to appreciate that there was not one, singular, “authentic” Canadian experience. %rough personal and collective re)ection and dis- covery, people had an opportunity to know and better under- stand each other, acknowledging the richness and complexity of a national story. I began my own exploration of the Centennial story back in the mid-!""&s as part of my doctoral work at the University of Mani- toba. While researching the topic and writing the dissertation, I spoke to many people, informally, about Centennial. I was sur- prised by how eager people were to share their Centennial mem- ories. In fact, I was amazed that so many friends, family and acquaintances spoke so genuinely and compellingly about what was evidently an important moment for them. Many people who were children at the time remembered Bobby Gimby’s song “CA- NA-DA!,” or recalled a visit to the Confederation Train or Caravan. A friend found and proudly presented to me the Centennial medal he was given as a student in Nanaimo, B.C., and one woman, who was a teenager at the time, recollected participating in a youth exchange program, travelling to Carbonear, Newfoundland.
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