CANADIAN NATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 June 1932, Page 2

CANADIAN NATION

ANGLO-AMERICAN CONTRAST. Curious divergences must be noted in the historical experiences of the great British Dominions, writes J. R. Stevens in the “Cape Times,” wheh reviewing Professor A. Brady s new book on Canada. The South African historian is engrossed with political events quite outside the experience of the other Dominions. The Australian or New Zealand historian must occupy himself with social developments, as all other influences have been secondary in the development of the Antipodean States. In Canada, any study must emphasise the overwhelming importance of economic ; eventSv in the history of Canada. Confederation itself was less the begining of Canada than ,the building of Hie Canadian Pacific Railway. Born in the restless years when the hide of British men and British gold began -to encircle the globe, and cradled in the decades of limitless exploitation, the history of ..Canada is essentially economic in its colourings, and lacks those bold contours and striking scenes which .distinguish the records of states whose progress has been wrought upon the anvil of political -and .social experiment. -Yet Professor Brady .properly begins with a survey of Canadian political iUfititutiofis. He finds the influence of Great Britain to be paramount in -the -evolution of Canadian political devices. No Dominion ,is so British not only in "the form but in the spirit of ■ its governing instruments. The "very names have been retained? The Canadian House of Representatives is called the House of Commons. Canada alone among the Dominions has a Privy Council. The Canadian' Senate is a House of Lords in everything except hereditary privilege. The historic fictions.of'the royal.pre-' rogative -have -been preserved to a greater degree in Canada than elsewhere. Sir John McDonald, father of Confederation, proposed to call theUnion of British -North American -Colonies “The Kingdom of Canada,’ and but dor the fear of the British Prime Minister, who dreaded -the repercus-* sions of such title upon .the blatantdemocracy of the United States, Canada would have been in name, as in fact, a kingdom. A resolution was presented to the Canadian House of Commons recently by a prominent .French Canadian member of /the Government, proposing to change the official description from “Dominion” :to “Kingdom.” Moreover, "nothing could be more British -t-han -Canadian ability to preserve the fiction'and at the same time to refuse the fact, of colonial subservi-. ency. The only British possessions which remain colonies are .those which have not sufficient Englishmen to breed rebellions. From the beginning Canadian, political life, irrespective of the party in -power, has -been dominated by a healthy impulse towards autonomy and national integrity. The impossibility of centralised control of an Empire sprawled across the Seven Seas .has ever been an article of faith With Canadian statesmen. " Socially and culturally, Professor Brady finds Canada to be a satrapy of the United States. He quotes with evident approval the shrewd if stinging judgment of an English traveller, to the effect that no one need visit Canada to-day if one has been in the United States two years ago.

AMERICAN PENETRATION.

■ Yet the very fact -that it takes Canada, .two years ..to accept the current American vogue suggests a less sweeping conclusion. The impregnation of American social ideology may be less complete than appears on the surface. (As a matter of fact, there is little enough- reason to believe that Americans themselves subscribe to the majority of vocational insanities which pass for social expedients in that republic). The ;gr.eat unleavened lump of Quebec, lour millions of .people completely unresponsive to social kinesis, must always resist assimlation. The older English-speaking -provinces, while bearing the American impress, react very slowly to the limitless parvenuisme -which characterises the American social outlook. The :Canadian is a social democrat —but with marked reservations concerning him-

self. Nor should the influence of the small

but vehement minority of the elder

Canadian s’tock, which preaches in or out of season the virtue of all things British, and malignity of all things American, be entirely overlooked. All in all, although Canada' is definitely ccntinentalist in culture (having absorbed many of the- worst features of American life while neglecting -the' best), she has not entirely bartered her inheritance. In comparison with the American, the Canadian is less susceptible to innovation, puts a lower premium on cleverness, compromises more easily, is less volatile, more reticent. He has a conception of permanent values which the other lacks. This is exemplified in his respect for authority and in his insistence upon the integrity of social contracts. The swift and impartial administration of justice which has kept Canada clean of organised crime, is significant of the failure of the Canadian to identify himself completely with the social outlook of his neighbour. In his economic discussions, Professor Brady traces clearly and intelligently the developments which have -brought Canada in fifty years from obscurity to be the fifth commercial and industrial nation of the world. He recognises the debt owed to the Canadian Pacific Railway, which took Canada down to her oceans, preventing her absorption in American transportation systems. He sketches the fascinating history of those twin elements of Canadian greatness, the growth of the wheat industry on the prairies, and the exploitation of the boundless mineral wealth of the preCambrian rocks of the Hddson Bay carapace.

Unlike the majority of his countrymen, he does not flinch from the obverse of this inspiring picture. He knows that Canadian wealth and power, is a .portent of the Great -Gutting Age. Forests cut down, land exhausted, mines worked out, rivers and seas unstocked; such tales run through every page of the economic history of -the North American Continent. As Professor Brady puts it. “An end to Nature’s bounty must ultimately be reached. Yet while the conservation of natural resources has champions wlho pay lip service in after-luncheon addresses, Canada still has the colonial belief in inexhaustible abundance. She continues recklessly to squander the endowments of time, confident that the morrow will take care of itself.”