University of Victoria - Tower Yearbook (Victoria, British Columbia Canada)

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slowly, is far from remedied. It is in the distinc- tive histories and varying economies of these five Canadas that the seed of the popular and derisive practise of classifying the Canadian population into three such categories as mari- timer, Frenchman and white man is to be found. Yet were this diversity treated with realism and imagination it need not necessarily be a handicap in the Canadian striving for national consciousness, as it has always heretofore been considered: rather it should be realized that this very diversity makes Canada unique among na- tions, a small world within the boundaries of a single country, which offers challenges and ad- vantages as well as disabilities. With a realiza- tion of both their limitations and possibilities there is little reason for Canadians failing to achieve a full sense of nationhood. No one in Canada will ever be heard making a call for exaggerated and aggressive nationalism: Cana- dians are temperamentally unsuited to the role. They are, however, fully equipped to assume a position among the world leaders, a claim which the rational evaluation of their contributions to world affairs will substantiate. No one in Can- ada, for example, will attempt to duplicate such claims as have issued from America and Russia regarding the winning of the war: Canada will make no such expansive claims, but is entitled to expect recognition of the fact that her contri- bution was considerable. lt is necessary for Canadians to make an objective analysis of their own worth and position in order to derive and manifest a proper sense of pride in their own achievements. In this survey of achievement, Canada's rec- ord during and immediately preceding the world war speaks for itself. Assuming the responsi- bility voluntarily, Canada entered the struggle shoulder to shoulder with Britain in 1939, never hesitating or faltering in her obligations until the war had been fought to a successful conclusion. The military record 'of the Canadians was unsur- passed among the combatant nations. Fielding a complete Canadian Army Corps for the first time under Canadian command, her troops fought from Sicily through the Hitler Line, from Normandy through the Scheld to Germany: the Canadian Navy bore the brunt of the Atlantic convoy duty through the most threatening period of the Nazi submarine warp the Canadian gov- ernment accepted responsibility for' carrying through the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, while the Air Force, besides operating its own bomber group and fighter wings, contributed one-third of the aircrew operating out of Britain with the B.A.F. Canadian scientists combined with those of the United States and Britain to form the team which produced the atomic bomb. In supplying her own needs and those of her allies, Canada's industry expanded by fifty per cent between 1942 and 1945 until today, with the war past, Canada is a creditor nation stand- ing to the fore as one of the three greatest trading nations of the world. Canadian agriculture, charged with the task of feeding a beleaguered Britain, fulfilled the obligation without hesitation and, in the months following the war, was pub- licly acclaimed for the manner in which Canada as a nation fulfilled its obligations to UNBBA. Throughout this period, with its ever-present danger of runaway inflation, the Canadian gov- ernment, operating without fanfare, functioned so effectively in its fight to hold the price line as to become the envy of the post-war world. Be- cause of the nation's gradual development, com- pletely devoid of the spectacular, charges are commonly heard of Canadian immaturityy but it is a charge which wilfully disregards both the record and the latent possibilities. The facts of Canadian national life, when woven together to form an integrated tapestry, present an unmis- takable picture of a Canada grown to nation- hood. 'k'k-ki!-K-K . fwx fl x f'- f' tw X 'f L xx XX, X X N 'ff f X tt mx , -34 ff 1 EL .. T .A-xxx . T M . - Congratulations on Your Fine Publication - HOCKING '55 FORBES

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I O I -K-K ill' By BOB DONALDSON s-42 . By KEN SMITH Professor Lower, Canadian historian and na- tionalist, has described Canada as a successful mediocrity of a country, and the great majority of the Canadian population, having never par- ticipated in any great emotional experience on a national scale capable of arousing them to an awareness of Canada as a nation, or of instil- ling in them a fully developed sense of national pride, would be inclined to agree with this defi- nition. So slow have the majority of Canadians been in manifesting any full appreciation of the high esteem in which their nation is held in world councils, or of the greatness which Canada is capable of achieving in the future, that visit- ing statesmen have remarked on the Canadian lack of awareness and assertiveness. Unfortunately, with the exception of Mac- kenzie and Papineau's somewhat lame and abor- tive attempt at revolt in 1837, Canada has no romantic historical background of revolution to fire the imagination or establish a source of tra- dition. On the contrary, the chronicle of Cana- dian responsibility and autonomy is one of unin- spiring and involved legal procedure, largely W carried out behind the scenes by scholarly gen- tlemen in top hats and striped trousers: a long, drawn-out process which is lacking in appeal to the student, and of which the average citizen has scarcely been aware. So Confederation, long considered one of the greatest feats in con- stitutional history, because the idea evolved slowly and was put into effect gradually, has failed as a means of infusing in Canadians a national spirit. Autonomy, obscured in the legal phraseology of the Statute of Westminster, failed to become a stirring event in Canadian history and tradition, and has remained, instead, to Canadians, nothing more than a parliamentary act completely devoid of any national signifi- cance. Never was this lack of imagination and colour, so prevalent in Canadian politics, more clearly evidenced than during the late war. At that time, with the nation united in a common purpose as it had never been united before, with a large fighting force in existence embodying in concrete form the common aspirations and will of the Canadian people, the govemment failed to capitalize on the opportunity presented to imbue Canadians with a sense of national pride. No patriotic oratory or rallies stirred the public: poster pictures of Churchill and Roose- velt, representing the mother country across the Atlantic and the good neighbor south of the 49th parallel, the two spheres of influence between which Canada has been torn throughout her his- tory, were pressed into service in the absence of any Canadian personality possessing the ne- cessary personal appeal to arouse the public. Another, and perhaps the major factor con- tributing to the absence of a Canadian national sentiment, is the belief that the geographical and cultural diversity of the country ipso facto pro- hibits any real unity. The various geographical characteristics to be found between the Atlantic and the Pacific has divided Canada into five clearly defined areas, each with its own peculiar history and interests, which has made the prob- lem of establishing a common basis of national will and enthusiasm extremely difficult. A gov- ernment policy which is advantageous to the prairie farmer is not necessarily equally satis- factory to the Ontario manufacturer: the two are often in direct conflict: and the interests and back- ground of the two coastal areas, Pacific and Atlantic, vary widely. These differences, how- ever, are basically economic: the most serious diversity lies in the racial issue which exists be- tween the French-speaking and English-speaking elements. Over 100 years ago Durham found two nations at war within the bosom of a single state, and the situation, although improving

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ms' -if 0 O GODFREY L. O. HEARN ll-ll'll'll'l+l+ The importance of a native literature in na- tional life is not yet fully realized by Canadians. Canada has all the technical aspects of nation- hood: she has a proper pride of place: yet she has not the complete belief in herself that is found in older countries. One of the symptoms of this lack of self-assurance is the Canadians' accept- ance of an unnecessary dependence upon others in cultural matters. That Canada is able to de- pend upon other countries is one of the chief reasons for the lack of flourishing literature in Canada today. In the past, Canada has produced novelists like Louis I-lemon and poets like Archibald Lamp- man,and Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, but these have never reached the first rank of writers, nor are they known widely in the world. This is the case even now. Canada has plenty of writers and journalists, but she cannot keep their talent. Most of them go to the United States and forget that they are Canadians: those that stay remain unknown and comparatively unsuccessful. Why is this? It is because Canada is a blind alley for authors. There are many reasons for this unfortunate truth. One is the Canadian's belief that Cana- dian products are inferior. In a small reading population such as Canada's, a belief of this kind among even a few can so reduce the sale of a book that the author has no incentive to publish his work. Five thousand copies is con- sidered a good sale in Canada, whereas in Bri- tain and the United States books may run into more than one edition of two and three hundred thousand. Such a situation naturally discour- ages publishers, and Canadian publishers have grown chary of putting out anything by Cana- dian authors. They make more profit by reprints on a small scale of British and American books -why incur possible liabilities when easy money is at hand? Efforts to build up Canadian literature have usually degenerated into the stifling atmosphere of literary and authors' clubs. These well- meaning organizations suffer from an artiness that would make literature a matter of appre- ciation of the few, instead of the concern of the nation as a whole. The clubs claim writing abili- ty as their own, and are allowed almost com- plete iurisdiction .over letters in Canada. The obiection to authors' clubs is that their exist- ence leads the people to believe that there is a thriving literature in Canada where there is only a sapling plant. There must be no public complacency where so important a matter as national culture is involved. The Canadian public has the same attitude as has the great mass of the public in other Eng- lish-speaking countries. To it, literature is some- thing of interest only to students and writers. There is a large sale of shoddy work, and the public, as a whole, can no longer distinguish good writing from bad. In all this, Canada has much in common with Britain and the United States. The difference is that in the other coun- tries there is a strong enough established litera- ture to survive public apathy. In Canada, literature has never been strong, and it is stunt- ed and held back by popular indifference. Aldous Huxley has said there are few Mil- tons that are mute and inglorious. But there must be more in Canada today than in any other country with her possibilities for literary development: not because writers are down- trodden or unable to make themselves heard, but because if they are heard they are disre- garded. Canadians have not yet brought them- selves to recognize literature as a serious pro- fession, and there is no advantage for a man to live for his profession and not be taken serious- ly. lt is as impractical for a poet to starve in a garret today as it was 100 years ago, and more useless. With commercialism at its height, poten- tial authors are discouraged from entering what seems to be an unprofitable field: what Cana- dians forget is that they have made it unprofit- able, and that they can make it pay. If Canada wants a future for her literature, let her make one for her writers. Clearly, the reproach for the backwardness of Canadian literature lies not with the authors but with the public of Canada, and through the public, the publishers. Many expect there to be a miraculous blossoming of talent in Canada in the future, but they may be sure that talent will not blossom in an intellectual desert of neglect. At present, Canada is overshadowed by her neighbours, but her writers have made an ex- cellent beginning and, with popular support, there will be a strong national Canadian litera- ture yet.