George Grant (2) (1918–1988)

I feel purely blessed that I stumbled across this book at a thrift shop. I’m not sure I would have heard of it otherwise, as I’m not usually very into Canadian history or Canadian politics. This book managed to explain why, as well as to motivate me to re-engage with the history unfolding around me (though it seems the author had no such intention).

I’ve been lamenting this country for quite a long time, before I could put my finger on why. There’s a real sense of doom in a place show more where our only identity seems to be “at least we’re not like that tax collector!” (America, of course). You are not allowed to be proud of being a Canadian in the virtuous, patriotic sense - to be so is racist, sexist, colonialist, and what have you. You’re only allowed to be proud in the wicked sense.

Now, we see that even that is changing. Now, it’s become mainstream to say that you must not celebrate Canada Day, because Canada committed genocide against Indigenous peoples (we did no such thing, but that’s irrelevant). You must not proclaim our superiority to Americans, as We Did Evil Things Too and have no excuse.

It would seem we’re getting closer to giving up our sin of pride for something even worse. Does such a thing exist? I’m scared of what that might look like.

If only I could get a coffee with George Grant, he would probably have it figured out already. show less

‘The power of the American government to control Canada does not lie primarily in its ability to exert direct pressure; the power lies in the fact that the dominant classes in Canada see themselves at one with the continent on all essential matters’

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‘All fixed, fast-frozen relations, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, show more his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind’

——

Writing in 1965, Grant’s primary argument here, (and what makes this a lament), is that Canada has ceased to be a sovereign nation. Reading in 2025, this is initially a somewhat surprising contention.

Grant’s point, however, is not that Canada has been formally subsumed or conquered, but that historical necessity has led to the economic and political homogenization of Canada into what Grant calls a ‘branch plant society’, a notionally distinct but practically integrated node of the larger North American economy.

As a small-c conservative Grant attributes this to the unfolding of liberal and technological modernity, which, (at least imo), doesn’t really get to the heart of the issue. For the less conservatively inclined, it isn’t much of a stretch to see the process he identifies, and describes quite incisively, as the expanding march of American capital.

All to say, this was a generative read in this particular moment. Grant brings a more lucid analysis of processes still relevant today than many contemporary commentators. show less

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Reviewed here.