Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity
Investigates how Canada crafted a national narrative after World War II.  

Since Confederation, Canadian prime ministers have consciously constructed the national story. Each created shared narratives, formulating and reformulating a series of unifying national ideas that served to keep this geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation together. This book is about those narratives and stories.

Focusing on the post-Second World War period, Raymond B. Blake shows how, regardless of political stripe, prime ministers worked to build national unity, forge a citizenship based on inclusion, and define a place for Canada in the world. They created for citizens an ideal image of what the nation stood for and the path it should follow. They told a national story of Canada as a modern, progressive, liberal state with a strong commitment to inclusion, a deep respect for diversity and difference, and a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Ultimately, this innovative history provides readers with a new way to see and understand what Canada is and what holds it together as a nation.
1144959200
Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity
Investigates how Canada crafted a national narrative after World War II.  

Since Confederation, Canadian prime ministers have consciously constructed the national story. Each created shared narratives, formulating and reformulating a series of unifying national ideas that served to keep this geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation together. This book is about those narratives and stories.

Focusing on the post-Second World War period, Raymond B. Blake shows how, regardless of political stripe, prime ministers worked to build national unity, forge a citizenship based on inclusion, and define a place for Canada in the world. They created for citizens an ideal image of what the nation stood for and the path it should follow. They told a national story of Canada as a modern, progressive, liberal state with a strong commitment to inclusion, a deep respect for diversity and difference, and a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Ultimately, this innovative history provides readers with a new way to see and understand what Canada is and what holds it together as a nation.
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Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity

Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity

by Raymond B Blake
Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity

Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity

by Raymond B Blake

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Overview

Investigates how Canada crafted a national narrative after World War II.  

Since Confederation, Canadian prime ministers have consciously constructed the national story. Each created shared narratives, formulating and reformulating a series of unifying national ideas that served to keep this geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation together. This book is about those narratives and stories.

Focusing on the post-Second World War period, Raymond B. Blake shows how, regardless of political stripe, prime ministers worked to build national unity, forge a citizenship based on inclusion, and define a place for Canada in the world. They created for citizens an ideal image of what the nation stood for and the path it should follow. They told a national story of Canada as a modern, progressive, liberal state with a strong commitment to inclusion, a deep respect for diversity and difference, and a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Ultimately, this innovative history provides readers with a new way to see and understand what Canada is and what holds it together as a nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780774869645
Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
Publication date: 02/19/2026
Series: The C.D. Howe Canadian Political History
Pages: 414
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Raymond B. Blake is professor of history at the University of Regina and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has held visiting professorships at Phillipps-Universitat Marburg and University College Dublin, where he has twice held the Craig Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies. He was formerly director of the Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy and director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University. He has written and edited more than twenty books, including, most recently, Where Once They Stood: Newfoundland’s Rocky Road to Canada.

Table of Contents

Foreword / John English

Preface

Introduction: Building the National Narrative – Words Matter, Leaders Matter

1 Postwar Beginnings: W.L. Mackenzie King, 1943–48

2 No Ordinary Nation: Louis St-Laurent, 1948–57

3 “My Fellow Canadians”: John Diefenbaker, 1957–63

4 Unity through Cooperation: Lester B. Pearson, 1963–68

5 Toward a Multicultural Just Society: Pierre Trudeau, 1968–84

6 Weaving the Last Threads: Brian Mulroney, 1984–93

7 The Canada We Want: Jean Chrétien, 1993–2005

8 National Values: Stephen Harper, 2006–15

Conclusion: Stories and Narratives Build a Nation

Notes; Bibliography; Index

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