WEEK 6 -Building CA: Symbols, celebrations

Question 1

September 30th

Answer 1

National Day for Truth and reconciliation
orange t-shirt day
federal statutory holiday

was designated in 2021…
- recognizing the issues in our country
- there have been memorial type shi

Question 2

Nationalism

Answer 2

LOYALTY and devotion to a nation
emphasis on collective rights of an entire nation
surpass individual or group interests

Question 3

National Identity

Answer 3

Needs to be learned.
nation = imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and soverign

Common points can include distinctive:
- tradition
- language
- symbols
- history
- culture

Question 4

why is a nation an imagined community?

Answer 4

benedict anderson - defines a nation as imagined bc the memers of even smallest will never know, meet, or even hear most of their fellow members —– buuuuut we imagine we are all part of the same communion

COLLECTIVE phenomenon
Arises because “common points” in people’s lives

Question 5

importance of national identity

Answer 5

National identities can reaffirm collective solidarity, lead to ppl to work for common good, can redistribute resources and build welfare states more easily.

Question 6

Real story of the Canadian flag

Answer 6

Wanted distinct cad flag
George Stanley made the OG flag

Question 7

National Flag of Canada Day: FEB 15, 1996

Answer 7

This takes place right after Quebec Referendum (October 30, 1995)
Flag day as a political tool - attempt to address some national unity concerns.

MARKING THE MAPLE LEAF = abt reinforcing unity, Canadian values, unity, etc
National branding = how diff gov’s have used this for different purposes. government using it for their own means. meaning can mean different things at different times

Question 8

values associated with flag

Answer 8

INCLUSION
EQUITY

HARPER: Peace in a nation

Question 9

symbol

Answer 9

“a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.”

employed, promoted to support notions of Canadianness at these sites

Question 10

DOMINION DAY

Answer 10

• 1868: Governor General Viscount Monck calls on Canadians to celebrate the anniversary of Confederation
• 1879: Dominion Day becomes a national holiday
• 1927: The Diamond Jubilee was the first federally organized observance of the anniversary of Confederation

marked the anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867, which created the Dominion of Canada. The term “Dominion” reflected Canada’s status as a self-governing entity within the British Empire, highlighting its transition toward autonomy while remaining connected to Britain.

Question 11

CANADA DAY!! Historian Matthew Hayday argues what…

Answer 11

REDEFINED as Canada Day in 1982…

HAYDAY: More ethnically diverse image of the country emerged. Depictions of Indigenous peoples shifted from assimilation to ones in which their traditions and languages featured or “a new fusion of Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian practices” was presented

!!!Canada served as “a vehicle for promoting the liberal, civic conception of Canada rooted in individual achievement and diversity”!!!!!

Reinforced “policies of bilingualism multiculturalism, liberal individualism, and the Charter of Rights”

Question 12

Commemoration

Answer 12

To commemorate is to: call to remembrance; to mark by some ceremony or observation; something that is done to remember officially and give respect to a great person or event.

Growing public history literature which demonstrates the popular easy commemoration can shape collective understandings of the past and be used to reinforce power structures and ideologies in the present.

Question 13

WHO commemorates CAD State

Answer 13

Note that the processes of shaping collective memory are interactive. Those (official memory) affirmed by political elites and gov but CONTRASTED by mass audiences for individual actors in commemorative ceremonies

Question 14

Commemoration Materialising

Answer 14

VIOLA DESMOND ON 10$ BILL
Super important bc its about diverse representation of canadians
Daily nature of the currency
Idea behind these commemorations / status / memorials etc – ppl might have questions as to these ppl and so ppl can learn

Was first woman and first black person
March 8, 2018 was this new 10-dollar (10 dollar) bill

Question 15

Commemoration practices

Answer 15

• Monuments
• Plaques
• Historic sites
• Museums
• School textbooks and curricula
• Historical novels, plays, books, documentaries, and movies
• Place names
• Currency

Question 16

Canadian Plaques, Place Names, and Monuments

Answer 16

About conveying collective narratives rife with ideology; selected memory that frames socially
constructed public consciousness

NAMES (Lauren Beck, 2022):
- names r mainly euro-settler and masculine
- exposes “the ways out identities are mirrored and are not mirroredin Canada’s palce names to support critical reflection across this country about our names, whether we want to continue to use them etc”

MONUMENTS (Abraham, 2021)
- Supporters of removing offending monuments, like David MacDonald, note how the “protests highlight the racism of these infamous figures, the racist societies that produced these representations and the ways these representations and these statues continue to both normalize and obscure settler violence and systemic racism
- Those who disagree say the past cannot be erased

statues built to remind ppl of history, protests signal shift in social consciousness about who should be commemorated and how history should be told

Question 17

POTLACH BAN

Answer 17

POTLACH = to give
ceremony for First nations living on the Northwest Coast to mark special occasions; could be used to display hereditary possessions and to fulfill social obligations

ANTI-POTLACH proclamation issued in 1883, became law until 1885 under Indian Act

Banned until 1951. Banned bc it conflicted with liberal ideas of private property and giving away redistribution of private wealth

Led to prison time for these ppl

Question 18

MARCH 8, 2018: VIOLA DESMOND (HUGHES)

Answer 18

• She became first Canadian woman to appear solo on a regular circulating banknote. Celebrabrates Desmond’s role as a civil rights icon.

She sat in a whites only movie theatre section in Nova Scotia, 1946.

• now on 10 dollar bill: Symbolizes development in collective conciousness. More than just honouring her, it represents canadas commitment to recognizing historical injustices and promoting diversity and inclusion.

NATIONAL IDENTITY – event highlights Canada’s evolving identity, where symbols like currency are used to reflect the country’s values. Desmond’s place on the bill sends a message about acknowledging marginalized voices and underlining their contributions to Canadian society.

Question 19

NIMIJEAN and RANKIN: Canadian Flag

Answer 19

National symbols connect nation to the state
- On the one hand: help create the state
- On the other: they facilitate the state’s definition of the nation
- The process to adopt the new flag also became a political flashpoint, with debates about national unity, identity, and the balance between Canada’s British roots and its emerging sense of independence.

Why flag was being celebrated:
- address divisive past

IMPORTANT: It took Canada nearly a century to adopt its own flag, and a further three decades to adopt a national day commemorating its existence

Question 20

NIMIJEAN and RANKIN: Importance of Canadian Flag

Answer 20

Identity is a political tool in Canada! Sell an image of Canada nationally and internationally
- HARPER DEFINITION: “symbol of peace, freedom, diversity, and strength”
- molding symbol: harper tried to mold it into a military thing.

Question 21

Flag Day and Harper Gov

Answer 21

Focused on:
- militarism
- Promoting Canada as a Warrior nation
- Emphasizes a more muscular foreign policy stance around issues such as arctic sovereignty (emphasizes a more MUSCULAR stance in intl affairs, arctic sovereignty and canadas place as a resource superpower)

harper priority: stabilizing via symbolic gestures

Question 22

NIMIJEAN and RANKIN: Popular reception of flag day

Answer 22

announcement of flag day in 1996 - reflected the political envr of the time – especially national unity concerns

maple leaf flag not a symbol for many quebecois

Question 23

NIMIJEAN and RANKIN: Why FLAG DAY did not succeed

Answer 23

didnt want to spend too much $$$ when cad econ wasnt doing well

Flag connected to former LIBERAL PM Lester Pearson, likely that the conservatives saw the flag day through a partisan lens.

LIBS nor CONSERVATIVES invested that much to transform it – canada flag day represents limited commemoration practices.

Question 24

NIMIJEAN and RANKIN: Element of Control for national flag day

Answer 24

National flag of canada day is best understood as a symbolic form of celebration created to operate on multiple levels related to identity, values, culture, partisan politics and even leadership, not simply as perfunctory and somewhat muted day of commemoration

Tracking such commemorations over time allows for comparison of how governments of different political stripes utilize commemorations for similar or diverging priorities, but it also can reveal how a single government can craft its approach to commemorations in subtle ways designed to reinforce its branding messages around particular policy orientations