Northern fragments
Why Canada will never find a single unifying theory to describe its political culture
by reviewed by Robert White
The comedy team of Bowser and Blue once joked that Canadians are “fiscally conservative and socially liberal,” which, they went on to say, means “they’re cheap and like to sleep around.” Their tongue-in-cheek description of Canadian political culture may be as apt as any. Defining Canada’s political culture – as any political observer in this country can attest – remains a difficult task, fraught with risks.
Nonetheless, Nelson Wiseman gamely ventures into this terrain with In Search of Canadian Political Culture, a thorough yet accessible work that surveys the political fabric of Canada through a close look at Canada’s history, institutions, electoral tendencies and demographics. In the process, the author succeeds in delivering some lucid observations and plausible descriptions of this country’s political culture. He does so by stating upfront that it’s impossible to identify one monolithic theory of political culture for Canada and instead puts the emphasis on the variations that occur across the five regions in his configuration of Canada.
Dr. Wiseman, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, recognizes the risks inherent in this exercise, including the dangers of caricaturing and stereotyping. So he gives himself an out with plenty of escape-hatch language, like this excerpt from the introduction: “… this study seeks to prompt discussion… it offers possibilities rather than prescription.”
Once he gets through clearing his throat, Dr. Wiseman does make an important point as to why we can’t even try to define one pan-Canadian political culture: in spite of many loosely shared social and cultural values and identities, there is little commonality among the political cultures of Canada’s regions. To think otherwise only sets our policymakers and leaders up for failure in their pursuit of institutional reforms, such as the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords of 1987 and 1992 – efforts that Dr. Wiseman derides, calling them “folly, a quest for a false messiah.” Instead, he advances the interpretation of Canadian political culture as consisting of parts; their sum may still make a whole, but a composite whole, in which Canadian political culture is seen as one of “evolutionary change: gradual, incremental and iterative.”
The description of those constituent parts makes up the second half of this book and provides some enjoyable reading. Of the chapters on the five regions, his work on Quebec stands out.
Dr. Wiseman’s fresh look includes an update on the venerable Hartz-Horowitz “fragment theory” (familiar to all us luckless political science students) that posits that Canada’s political culture is a composite of fragments of other cultures and that one of these fragments, the U.K.’s old-style Conservatism, gave Canada its more social democratic leanings when compared with our neighbors to the south. While Dr. Wiseman disputes the theory’s relevance for most of English Canada, he says it does explain how vestiges of France’s ancien-régime conservatism in Quebec eased the transition from the liberal-minded Quiet Revolution of the 1960s to the province’s social democratic political culture of today. He argues that Quebec is a true national fragment, thus reminding us of the distinctiveness of this region’s political culture that in some ways may be irreconcilable for a working federation.
Dr. Wiseman’s breakdown of the west is also fascinating. He makes an important distinction between the mid-west (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) and the far west (Alberta and British Columbia), a nuance too often neglected by political observers. Alberta and B.C. may at first seem an odd pairing, but they are grouped together as the parvenu political culture. Dr. Wiseman argues decisively for the important similarities of these two provinces – their common upstart character and the way both continue to attract migrants from other parts of Canada. Their entrepreneurial tinge is both a product and contributing factor to this region’s consistent demographic and economic growth. That in turn gives the region increasing political clout as a power base that infuses its political culture.
One topic that gets short shrift in Dr. Wiseman’s book is the divide between urban and rural cultures. The author dedicates scarcely two pages to the issue. But the political sensibilities of these two distinct cultures surely cut across this country and in some cases trump the existing political culture of the larger region.
Overall, this is a valuable contribution to the understanding of Canada’s politics and its people. Dr. Wiseman’s book raises the level of discourse around the inescapable regional dimension of Canadian politics. Both political scientists in search of new takes on some old theories and political amateurs searching for deeper analysis beyond the trite and often ill-informed chatter that passes for political punditry will find the book worthwhile. But, does it improve upon the insight of a Canadian comedy routine such as Bowser and Blue? Well, they’re always a tough act to follow.
In Search of Canadian Political Culture by Nelson Wiseman, UBC Press, 2008 (paper), 360 pages
Robert White is a senior policy analyst at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
