Standing on guard

Although the new nationalists, including Walter Gordon and Mel Watkins, would part ways over the role of the state in the economy, the Left has virtually co-opted the nationalist mantle in Canada.16 By the time of the 1988 election on free trade, the popular and academic discourse would lead one to believe that that earlier generation of Canadian nationalists were the only ones defending Canada, o [...] Many Canadian academics, journalists, and political commentators portrayed the Liberals and the New Democrats in that debate as the defenders of the Canadian nation,17 and the Progressive Conservative Party as the enemy – or the anti-nationalists – who were willing to sell the nation’s birthright. [...] Globalization and continentalisation have not obliterated the role of the state, and the Canadian state has maintained the freedom to act in areas of economic, social, cultural and foreign policy. [...] In the first instance, Canada ratified the international agreement, and the United States did not; in the second, Canada refused to join the American-dominated coalition. [...] A series of polls commissioned by the CRIC and the Association for Canadian Studies, asking young Canadians between the ages of 18 and 25 what they saw in store for Canada in the year 2025, found that they are optimistic about Canada and Canadian identity.