Pity the federal Liberals: confined to seemingly permanent Opposition, they await the deliverance that only power can bring. In this political purgatory they are now visited by further vexation: their legacy is cast in doubt. What legacy? Why, that tapestry of distinctive symbols (anthem, flag, citizenship), processes (a domestic constitutional amending formula, end of judicial appeals to London) and policies (admission of Newfoundland and Labrador as a province, nation-building enterprises like the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Trans-Canada Highway). Whence the doubt? It is to be found in The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964–1968, written by C.P. Champion, a former lecturer in history at McGill University who now works as senior policy advisor to Jason Kenney, the minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism.
Imbued with a confidence that often appeared condescending and paternalistic, the Liberals...
David E. Smith is co-editor (with John C. Courtney) of The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Politics (Oxford University Press, 2010) and author of Federalism and the Constitution of Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2010).
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