IRSS (38) 2013 133
Review
Aya Fujiwara, Ethnic Elites and Canadian Identity: Japanese, Ukrainians and Scots, 1919-1971. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012, xi + 256 p., $27.95 (paper), ISBN 978- 0-8875-737-8
Adopting Ethnicity as Part of the Canadian Identity Ken McGoogan’s How the Scots Invented Canada, (meant to be deliberately ‘less academic,’) asserts that ‘a handful of Scots and Scottish Canadians invented the world’s most pluralistic society.’1 In contrast, Aya Fujiwara, in Ethnic Elites and Canadian Identity: Japanese, Ukrainians and Scots, 1919-1971, considers the complexities of a Scottish ethnicity overwhelmed by the contention, (boast if you will), that the history of the Scots in Canada is the history of Canada. Ethnic Elites examines the nature of ethnicity in Canada from the 1917 federal election to the enactment of multiculturalism as an official policy in 1971, and compares the approach of Scottish, Ukrainian and Japanese elites to the question of Canadian identity. Ethic Elites convincingly argues that had it not been for activism by these elites, it is unlikely that Canadians would have moved as quickly to develop a pluralistic approach to their identity. Fujiwara’s extensive use of ethnic sources and solid analysis has resulted in a substantial contribution to the study of ethnicity in Canada. Ethnic Elites will also appeal to students in the fields of Canadian cultural and identity studies, international relations, and the study of Canadian governance during the
1 Ken McGoogan, How the Scots Invented Canada (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010), ix 134 Review