Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity (The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History)

By Raymond B. Blake

Investigates how Canada crafted a national narrative after World War II.

Since Confederation, Canadian prime ministers have consciously constructed the national story. Each created shared narratives, formulating and reformulating a series of unifying national ideas that served to keep this geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation together. This book is about those narratives and stories.

Focusing on the post-Second World War period, Raymond B. Blake shows how, regardless of political stripe, prime ministers worked to build national unity, forge a citizenship based on inclusion, and define a place for Canada in the world. They created for citizens an ideal image of what the nation stood for and the path it should follow. They told a national story of Canada as a modern, progressive, liberal state with a strong commitment to inclusion, a deep respect for diversity and difference, and a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Ultimately, this innovative history provides readers with a new way to see and understand what Canada is and what holds it together as a nation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 077486964X
• ISBN13: 9780774869645
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
• Length: 414 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.4" x 6.0"