Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism

Abstract

Canadians have relatively few binding national myths, but one of the most pervasive and enduring is the conviction that the country is doomed. In 1965 George Grant passionately defended Canadian identity by asking fundamental questions about the meaning and future of Canada's political existence. In Lament for a Nation he argued that Canada - immense and under-populated, defined by a shared border, history, and culture with the United States, and torn by conflicting loyalties to Britain, Quebec, and America - had ceased to exist as a sovereign state. Nonetheless, Lament for a Nation became the seminal work in Canadian political thought and Grant became known as the father of Canadian nationalism. The fortieth anniversary edition introduces Lament for a Nation to a new generation. A major introduction by Andrew Potter explores Grant's arguments in the context of changes in ethnic diversity, free trade, globalization and post-modernism. Potter discusses the shifting uses of the terms liberal and conservative and closes with a look at the current state of Canadian nationalism. George Grant's Lament for a Nation remains essential reading for anyone interested in questions of Canadian identity, sovereignty, and national unity.

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