STRANGE CONTRAST

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 250, 13 June 1932, Page 8

STRANGE CONTRAST

NATION OF CANADA AMERICAN IN CULTURE BUT POLITICALLY BRITISH. CURIOUS DdVERGEN CIE S. Curious divergences must be noted in the bistorical experiences of the gieat British Dominions, writes J. R. Stevens in the Cape Times, when rfcviewing Professor A. Brady's new hook on Canada. The South African historian is engrossed with political events quite outside the experience of the other Dominions. The Australian or New Zealand historian must occupy himself with social developments, as all other influences have been secondary in the development of tho Antipodean States. In Canada, any study must emphasise the overwhelming importance of economic events in . the history of Canada. Confederation itself was less ihe beginning of Canada than the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Born in the restless years when the tide of British men and British - gold began to c-neircle the globe, and cradled in the decades of limitless exploitation, the history of Canada is essentially economic in its colourings, and iacks those bold contours and striking scenes which distinguish the records upon the anvil of political and social experiment. Yet Professor Brady properly begins with a survey of Canadian political institutions. Ha finds the influence of Great Britain to be paramount in the evolution of Canadian political devices. No Dominion is so British not only in the form but in the spirit of its governing instruments. The very names have been retained. The Canadian House of Representatives is called the House of Commons. Canada alone among the Dominions has a Privy Council. The Canadian Sen--ate is a House of Lords in everything except hereditary privilege. Royal Prerogative. The historic fictions of the royal prerogative have been preserved to a greater degree in Canada than elsewhere. Sir John McDonald, father of Confederation, proposed to call the Union of British North American Colonies "The Kingdom of Canada," and but for the fear of the British Primt Minister, who dreaded the . repercussions of such titi? upon the blatanf; demoncracy of the United States, Canada would have been in name, as in fact, a kingdom. A resolution was presented to the Canadian House of Commons recently by a prominent French Canadian member of the Government, proposing to change the ofncial description from "Dominion" to "Kingdom/" Moreover, nothing could be more British than Canadian ability to preserve the fiction and at the same time to refuse the fact, of colonial subserviency. The only British possessions which remain colonies are those which have not sufficient Englishmen to breed rebellions. From the beginning Canadian political life, irrespective of the party in power, has been dominated by a healthy impulse toward autonomy and national integrity. The impossibility of centralised control of an Empire sprawled across the Seven Seas has ever been an article of faith with Canadian statesmen. Socially and culturally, Professor Brady finds Canada to be a satrapy of the United States. He quotes with evident approval the shrewd if stinging judgment of an English travelDr, to the effect that no one need visit Canada to-day if one has be oi in the United States two years ago. American Penetration. Yet the vety fact that it takes Canada two years to accept the current American vogue suggests a less sweeping conclusion. The impregnalion of American social ideology may be less complete than appears on the surface. (As a matter of fact, there is little enough reason to believe that Americans themselv?* subseribe to the majority of vocational insanities which pass for social cxpedients in that republic.) The great unleavened lump of Quebec, four millions of people completely unresponsive to social kinesis, must always resist assimilation. The older English-speaking provinces, while bearing the American impress, react very slowly to the limitless parvenuisme which characterises the American social outlook. The Canadian is a social democrat — but with marke'd reservations concerning himself. Nor should the influence of the small but vehement minority of the elder Canadian stoclc, which preacbec in or out of season the virtus of all things British, and malignity of all things American, be entirely overlooked. All in all, although Canada is definitely continentalist in culture (having absorbed many of the worst features of American life while neglecting the best), she has not entirely bartered her inheritance. In c.omparison with the American, t'he Canadian is less susceptible to innovation puts a lower premium on cleverness, compromises more easily, is less volatile, more reticent. He has a conception of permanent values which the others lacks. This is exemplified in his respect for authority and n his insistence upon the integrity of social contracts. The swift and impartial

administration of justice which has kept Canada clean of oragnised crime is significant of the failure of the Canadian to identify himself eomplefc".ly with the social outlook of his neighbour. Fascinating History. • In his economic discussions, Professor Brady traces elearly and intelligently the developments which have brought Canada in fifty years from ob«curity to be the fifth c-.mmercial and industrial nation if the world. He recognises the debt owed to the Canadian Pacific Railway, which took Canada down to her oceans, preventing her absorption in American transportation systems. He sketchei the fascinating history of those twin elements of Canadian greatness, tho growth of the wheat industry on the prairies, and the exploitation of the boundless mineral wealth of the preCanadian rocks of the Hudson Bay carapace. Unlike the majority of his countryinen, he does not flinch from the obverse of this inspiring picture. II" knows that Canadian wealth and power, is a portent of the Great Gutting Age. Forests cut down, land exhausted, mines worked out, rive*c and seas unstocked; such tales run through every page of the economic history of the North American Con tinent. As Professor Brady puts it. "An end to Nature's bounty must ultimately be reached. Yet while ihe conservation of natural resources has champions who pay lip service in af-ter-luncheon addresses, Canada still has the colonial belief in inexhaustible abundance. She continues recklessly to squander the endowments of time, confident that the morrow will take care of itself."