How have people responded to factors that shape nationalism?
Like the French and Americans, Canadians respond to national myths that seem to suggest a national character. One myth that has entered the collective consciousness of many Canadians involves the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
This project if forever linked to John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, who envisioned this national dream: an irond road that would unite the country. And on January 1, 1967, the first day of Canada's centennial year, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfood cemented the symbolic importance of this railway when he performed "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy" for the first time.
This project if forever linked to John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, who envisioned this national dream: an irond road that would unite the country. And on January 1, 1967, the first day of Canada's centennial year, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfood cemented the symbolic importance of this railway when he performed "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy" for the first time.
|
Lightfoot's Lyrics...
|
The EUROCENTRIC perspective! History is usually told from the dominant culture's perspective!
- Why do people say Canada and the Canadian West were "discovered" as European settlers migrated?
- Why would people use this term when Aboriginal peoples had lived here for hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years?
- What do the terms "discovering" and "wilderness" say about Aboriginal peoples' place in Canadian history?
- What words might people use if they told these stories from different points of view or perspectives?
"Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian department"
- Canadian Politician, 1920
- Canadian Politician, 1920
"Our people look on with concern when the Canadian government talks about 'the two founding peoples' without giving recognition to the role played by the Indian even before the founding of a nation-state known as Canada."
- Harold Cardinal, Alberta Cree Leader
- Harold Cardinal, Alberta Cree Leader
some_perspectives_on_nationalism_within_canada.docx | |
File Size: | 11 kb |
File Type: | docx |