Scott W. See. The History of Canada. Second Edition

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Canadian Insights

Using Humor

Canadians share a deep tradition of enjoying satire that pokes fun at

their idiosyncrasies and at the same time makes serious points about

society, politics, and Canada’s relationship with other countries. The

inimitable Stephen Leacock, for example, skewered his contempor-

aries as he offered insightful observations about life in Canada in the

early twentieth century. More recently an impressive number of

comedians and satirists have plied their trade in live performances

and programs such as Second City Television, a popular Toronto-

based series that ran during the 1970s and 1980s. One of the premier

comedians of contemporary Canada comes from the Atlantic region.

Rick Mercer, through the vehicle of television programs such as This

Hour Has 22 Minutes and Talking to Americans, has used humor to

offer pointed critiques of political figures, Canadian culture, and the

ignorance that many Americans have of their northern neighbor. The

following excerpts come from one of Mercer’s collections of essays.

“Back to School Days,” 10 January 2006

Usually when there’s an election, there’s a script that both sides

follow, and the rest of us read along. We all know our parts. In a

federal election, the leaders fly around the country and make all sorts

of promises that we take with a grain of salt. But based on those

promises, we decide who we’re going to vote for.

2007 Rick Mercer. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday Canada.

Canadian Insights Using Humor 397

But the promises, whether they’re kept or not, are generally within

the realm of sanity. This time is completely different. The leaders are

acting like this isn’t a real federal election, or a provincial election, or

even a municipal election for that matter. And for the longest time,

I couldn’t figure out what it was that it reminded me of. And then it

dawned on me: high school student council.

In high school elections, 90 per cent of the candidates are very

serious, but some guy always gets up there, high as a kite, and makes

all sorts of insane announcements, and everyone loves him. When I

was in grade ten, some dude with a mullet promised free beer in the

fountains and a smoking room inside the school. My, how we

cheered. And that’s what Martin and Harper are like. Or they’re like

divorced parents trying to buy their children’s love. We’re the kids,

they’re our two dads. Except this time they’re not trying to buy our

love with just an Xbox or a few Easy-Bake-Ovens.

No, they’ve gone completely off their heads. Martin is spending like

Belinda Stronach in a shoe store. We’re talking billions of dollars

every time he turns around. And Harper is outspending him. There’s

a rumour going around that Harper’s about to promise everyone in

Ontario a Ferris wheel and a pony.

This is not good, Canada. I hate to be old-fashioned here, but

Stephen, Paul—where in God’s name is all the money coming from?

It’s a bad sign when the worst-case scenario is that whoever wins this

election actually keeps his promise. Because at the end of the day, free

beer in the fountains is a great idea—I just don’t want to pay for it.

“Go Invade Yourself,” 6 February, 2004

Just looking at George Bush you can tell he’s as mad as hell. He can’t

believe that after all this time there are still no weapons of mass

destruction. And I think he’s actually surprised. Things were looking

good there a couple of weeks ago when they found a can of Raid and

a Bic lighter, but since then, nothing.

Which is why Bush has announced the formation of a special

investigation into weapons of mass destruction. Basically he wants to

398 Canadian Insights Using Humor

know just what the hell he’ s been up to for the past year and a half.

He’s saying, I don ’ t trust me, I ’ m going to get to the bottom of this,

I’m either with me or against me. So he’s going to spend a fortune

figuring out just how intelligent U.S. intelligence is.

Boy, it’s a shame to see someone waste their money isn’t it? I could

just go knock on the door of the embassy and tell them what the rest

of us already know. But no. He wants to know why it is that when he

said there were weapons of mass destruction everyone knew he was

lying except for him.

And you know why he didn’t know, don’t you? Dick Cheney forgot

to tell him. I just hope he doesn’t take the news too hard; otherwise he

might have no choice but to go invade himself. And no getting around

it, that’s going to hurt.

Canadian Insights Using Humor 399

Bibliographic Essay

The most comprehensive and approachable survey on Canadian

history is the two-volume text by R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones,

and Donald B. Smith: Origins: Canadian History to Confederation

and Destinies: Canadian History Since Confederation,both6thed.

(Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 2008). A readable and opinionated work

by Desmond Morton requires some background on Canada’spast

before it is consulted: A Short History of Canada, 6th rev. ed.

(Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006). For a book with plenty of

interesting visual material, see Robert Craig Brown, ed., The Illustrated

History of Canada, 5th ed. (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2007). For a

broad selection of article-length studies on aspects of the country’s

political, social, and cultural history, see R. Douglas Francis and

Donald B. Smith, eds., Readings in Canadian History: Pre-Confedera-

tion and Readings in Canadian History: Post-Confederation, both 7th

ed. (Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2006). Readers who are interested in

collections of sources should consult two fine volumes edited by

Thomas Thorner and Thor Frohn-Nielsen: AFewAcresofSnow:

Documents in Pre-Confederation Canadian History, 3rd ed. (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 2009), and “A Country Nourished On

Self-Doubt”: Documents in Post-Confederation Canadian History,

3rd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010).

The best bibliography of historical works on Canada is the two-

volume Canadian History: A Reader’sGuide.Volume 1, Beginnings

to Confederation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994),

which is edited by M. Brook Taylor. Doug Owram edited volume 2,

Confederation to the Present (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

1994). The most thorough bibliography of articles, reviews, and

dissertations published since 1964 can be found in America: History

and Life. This source is not easy to navigate; nonetheless, it is the

best resource for serious students of the histories of Canada and the

United States. A valuable general bibliography on Canadian themes

Bibliographic Essay 401

is edited by J. A. Senécal, Canada: A Reader’sGuide(Ottawa:

International Council for Canadian Studies, 1993).

Readers interested in the lives of important Canadian figures should

use the impressive and ongoing Dictionary of Canadian Biography

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966–). Currently at fifteen

volumes, it is arranged chronologically by the individual’sdateof

death. The massive three-volume Historical Atlas of Canada (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 1987, 1990, 1993) is a stunning

production. A much more concise work is D. G. G. Kerr, Historical

Atlas of Canada, 3rd rev. ed. (Don Mills, ON: Thomas Nelson & Sons,

1975). No updated general history of Canada’s international relations

exists. Still serviceable are C. P. Stacey’s two-volume Canada and the

Age of Conflict: A History of Canadian External Policies (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 1977, 1984) and G. P. de T. Glazebrook’s

two-volume A History of Canadian External Relations (Toronto:

McClelland & Stewart, 1966). A useful addition to the scholarship is a

collection of essays edited by Phillip Buckner, Canada and the British

Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). A thorough history

of the country’s foreign relations during the Cold War era is Robert

Bothwell’s Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World, 1945–1984

(Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007). American

readers will no doubt be interested in the entertaining, yet scholarly

work, by John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall, Canada and

the United States: Ambivalent Allies,4thed.(Athens,GA:Universityof

Georgia Press, 2008).

Many works cover Canada’s provinces and regions. Understandably,

much of Quebec’s history is written in French. For solid works in

English, see John A. Dickinson and Brian Young, A Short History of

Quebec,4thed.(Montreal:McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008),

and Susan Mann Trofimenkoff, The Dream of Nation: A Social and

Intellectual History of Quebec,2nded.(Montreal:McGill-Queen’s

University Press, 2002). Two fine companion pieces effectively cover

the full scope of Atlantic Canada’s history: Phillip A. Buckner and

John G. Reid, eds., The Atlantic Region to Confederation: A History

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), and E. R. Forbes and

D. A. Muise, eds., The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 1993). Readers interested in Ontario might

startwithRobertBothwell,A Short History of Ontario (Edmonton:

Hurtig, 1986). The history of the prairies is adeptly interwoven in

402 Bibliographic Essay

Gerald Friesen, The Canadian Prairies: A History (Toronto: University

of Toronto Press, 1984). Howard and Tamara Palmer produced a

useful survey: Alberta: A New History (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1990).

Canada’s far West receives attention in Jean Barman’s, The West

beyond the West: A History of British Columbia (Toronto: University

of Toronto Press, 1991). An excellent place to begin a study of the

North is Morris Zaslow, The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914–

1967 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1988).

For the history of Native peoples, see Olive P. Dickason and David

T. McNab, Canada’s First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples

from Earliest Times, 4th ed. (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University

Press, 2009). Readers should also consider J. R. Miller, Skyscrapers

Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada,

3rd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000). Virtually all of

Canada’s major ethnic groups have been the subject of historical

study. Notable is Robin Winks’s work, The Blacks in Canada, 2nd

ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997).

Several works can be recommended to readers who are interested

in women’s history. The best overview is Alison Prentice et al.,

Canadian Women: A History, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Harcourt Brace,

1996). Excellent collections of specific studies should also be noted:

Adele Perry, Mona Gleason, eds., Rethinking Canada: The Promise of

Women’sHistory, 5th ed. (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press,

2006), and the two volumes by Alison Prentice and Susan Mann

Trofimenkoff, eds., The Neglected Majority: Essays in Canadian

Women’sHistory(Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977, 1985).

For studies of workers in Canada, see Craig Heron, The Canadian

Labour Movement: A Short History (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1996),

and Bryan D. Palmer, Working-Class Experience: Rethinking the

History of Canadian Labour, 1800–1991, 2nd ed. (Toronto:

McClelland & Stewart, 1992).

While they change more frequently than most of us would wish,

Web sites on Canadian themes abound. The following are quite

useful:

www.canadahistory.com – general Canadian history

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca – Library and Archives Canada

www.statcan.gc.ca – Statistics Canada

Bibliographic Essay 403

www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/Web/Unofficial/Canadiana/ –

a Canadian resource page

www.civilization.ca/cmc/explore/online-resources-for-canadian-

heritage – resources for Canadian Heritage

atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/index.html – Atlas of Canada

www.biographi.ca/ – Dictionary of Canadian Biography online

404 Bibliographic Essay

Index

Abbott, Sir John, 116

Aberhart, William, 149

Aboriginal peoples. See Native peoples

Acadia, 37–38, 58

Acadians, 84, 192; expulsion, 60–62, 72,

303–4

Acid rain, 220–21

Act of Union, 80–81

Adams, Bryan, 259

Afghanistan conflict, 246, 248, 249, 252,

391–92

Africa, 178, 218

Agricultural and Rural Development

Act, 169

Agriculture, 85, 87, 121, 134, 142, 157, 158

Aird Commission, 135, 145

Akwasasne reserve, 224

Alabama claims, 94, 109, 110

Alaska, 102, 110, 155, 255

Alaska boundary award, 121

Alaska Highway, 162

Alberta, 104, 129, 149–50, 167, 168, 202,

229, 231; Confederation, 13, 118;

geography, 10

Alexander, Sir William, 37

Algonquian (linguistic group), 27, 35, 38,

39, 41, 57, 58

Allan, Hugh, 107

Alline, Henry, 71, 84

Allophone (definition), 22 n.2

Alverstone, Lord, 121

American Federation of Labor (AFL),

133, 167

American Revolution, 57, 67, 70–72, 73

Americans, 21 n.1

Amerindians. See Native peoples

Anne of Green Gables, 231

Anglican church, 79, 84, 92. See also

Church of England

Anglophone (definition), 22 n.2

Annapolis Royal, 58. See also

Port-Royal

Annexation Manifesto, 87

Arar, Maher, 252

Arcand, Denis, 258

Arctic, 10–11, 174, 221, 254, 393–95.