Nationalism in Canada

There has historically been, and continues to be, several rival nationalisms in Canada.

There has long been a recognition by scholars that English and French Canada have divergent views of the nation, often referred to as the Two Solitudes, from the title of a 1945 novel.

The existence of multiple strains of nationalism within nineteenth century English-speaking Canada was first explored by historian Carl Berger in his 1971 book The Sense of Power and his article in The Journal of British Studies.

In the historiography of nationalism there is significant dispute over whether true nationalism existed in pre-modern societies. Canada's aboriginal peoples were generally organized into small societies which anthropologists call bands, which were sometimes part of a larger grouping called a tribe. Occasionally several tribes would form a larger group called a confederacy (the Iroquois, Seven Nations of Canada, Huron, Blackfoot, and Plains Cree-Assiniboine were or are confederacies). None of these resembled nations as understood in Europe in terms of scale or permanence. Today however these groupings are referred to as "First Nations", representing their historical and modern role as sources of identity for many native people.

The first Europeans to exhibit nationalism in Canada may have been the French settlers who inhabited New France. They showed a great deal of loyalty and community in the face of repeated attacks by British and Iroquois rivals during the "French and Indian Wars". However, by the end of the French regime in North America, acadiens and canadiens may have already been showing signs of developing identities distinct from France.

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