Canada's History

No need for a national identity

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Andrew Coyne could not be more wrong in saying that Canada “must be” — or become — a nation [“Confederat­ion Derailed,” June-July 2017]. Canada works because it is a federation without being a nation. Like culture, national identity is regional. Coyne uses the example of Spain as a nation, but Spain is rife with regional identity conflict; think of the Basque and Catalan regions. Coyne points to the United States as a “counter-example,” but regional difference­s are pronounced in the U.S. The American obsession with being “one nation, indivisibl­e” reflects that country’s struggle to hold together disparitie­s that strain at the seams, not the presence of a “national us.” Successful federation­s do not require a federal national identity.

The ability to embrace difference­s — different nations — within a shared political unit — a federal unit — without requiring belonging to a larger nation is the project facing the twenty-first century. Jason Brock Toronto

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