Has Canada Failed?

Imagine an Ontario school-boy in 1951, giving a talk on Canada’s future in his grade five public speaking contest. The speech resonates with clichéd predictions of national greatness that John A. Macdonald, Wilfrid Laurier and hundreds of other Canadian dreamers and seers before and after them would recognize: Canada is bound to enjoy fantastic economic growth thanks to our amazing endowment of natural resources. A distinct Canadian identity based on a vibrant Canadian culture is now beginning to take shape. Canada will be a model to the world of peace, order and good government. The 20th century really will belong to Canada. We will outpace the United States. And so on.

Now, after a career of lecturing and writing about Canada, I am beginning to revisit those old dreams—yes, I was that schoolboy orator, with a lot of help from my mother—with a view to asking how well they worked out, especially in the last half of the century. What can we say in 2006 about the...