Matthew J. Bellamy

The corridors of academe are full of thoughtful people reflecting on essence and understanding. Depending on their own predispositions and the nature of the things they seek to comprehend, they differ in their disciplines or approaches. But the authors of two new books make a compelling case that if one hopes to understand the human…

In 1926, the great Harold Adams Innis asked a question: What are the very long-run factors in the integration of the Canadian nation? His answer was a most original contribution to political economy: the staple thesis. Innis argued that the exploitation of certain products — fish, fur, timber, and wheat — had set the pace and direction of our economic growth and created a nation that was oriented on an east-west…

In the aftermath of the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation went to work on its most ambitious historical docudrama, Canada: A People’s History. Eager to fulfill its mandate as a promoter of national unity and identity, the Mother Corp — as insiders often describe Canada’s oldest operating broadcaster — sought to make a series that would boost morale and instill in Canadians a sense of pride and…