In Search of Canadian Political Culture - UBC Press

UBC Press
In Search of Canadian Political Culture
Nelson Wiseman
In Search of Canadian Political Culture will become a
vital resource for work in a number of fields – politics,
sociology, history. Wiseman’s book is provocative,
stimulating, rich in historical detail and insights,
and written with both skill and boldness. For those
interested in the puzzle of Canadian identity, it doesn’t
get better than this.
– David Taras, co-author, The Last Word: Media
Coverage of the Supreme Court of Canada
In erudite, engaging prose, In Search of Canadian
Political Culture explores ways of understanding
Canada’s multi-layered and diverse political culture. It
makes the case for bottom-up, regional analyses of
Canadian politics in order to fill a gap in how we think
and write about the country.
Wiseman focuses on the interplay of five broad waves
of immigration, plumbs their ideological orientations,
and presents provincial political parties and institutions
as their exoskeletons. The book’s first half explores
and builds upon national perspectives and established
conceptual pathways by examining Canada’s ideological
foundations, the significance of formative events,
economic structures and classes, and survey research.
Throughout, Wiseman treats constitutions and
institutions as culture. The second half traverses the
regions from east to west, highlighting the singularity
of each and assigning to the provinces inventive
metaphorical images that conjure up the politics of
other or older societies.
Contents
Introduction
1 Pathways to Canadian Political Culture
2 Surveying and Comparing Political Cultures
3 Constitutions and Institutions as Culture
4 Culture, Biculture, Multiculture, Aboriginal Culture
5 Regions and Political Culture
6 Atlantic Canada: Traditional Political Culture?
7 Quebec: Political Culture of a Distinct Society
8 Ontario: Archetypal English Canadian Political Culture
9 The Midwest: Social Democratic Political Culture?
10 The Far West: Parvenu Political Culture
Conclusion
Notes; Bibliographic Note; Index
Nelson Wiseman is an associate professor
in the Department of Political Science at the
University of Toronto. An expert on social
democracy and current political trends, he is
frequently called upon by the media.
September 2007
288 pages, 6 x 9”
0-7748-1388-1 / 978-0-7748-1388-4
cloth $85.00
0-7748-1389-X / 978-0-7748-1389-1
paper $34.95 (publishing July 2008)
www.ubcpress.ca / 1 877 864 8477 1