* A Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook *

This eBook is made available at no cost and with very few restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make a change in the eBook (other than alteration for different display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of the eBook. If either of these conditions applies, please contact a https://www.fadedpage.com administrator before proceeding. Thousands more FREE eBooks are available at https://www.fadedpage.com.

This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be under copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada, check your country's copyright laws. IF THE BOOK IS UNDER COPYRIGHT IN YOUR COUNTRY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS FILE.

This eBook was produced by: Hugh Dagg, John Routh, Brittany Jeans & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net

By H. A. Innis

Queen’s Quarterly, Vol. L, No. 1, 1943

The myth that Canada is an interpreter between Great Britain and the United States has completely dissolved. The spate of publications, since the outbreak of war, and particularly since Pearl Harbour, on Canada and her position in relation to the United States reflects the sudden emergence of an American market and enables one to hope that Canada may eventually approach a status comparable to that of Mexico. Superhuman efforts seemed necessary to prevent Canada from being permanently forgotten. Volumes and articles were prepared with feverish haste and the titles were designed by journalists to demand American attention—Canada America’s Problem, America Canada’s Problem, Canada the Unknown Country, and the like. They suggest intense nationalism and an absence of major problems. The divisions which formerly made us a united nation have disappeared. Unity is paraded ostentatiously and ominously.

The complacent reception of the modest descriptions of our greatness illustrates again the principle that nature follows art. The spectacular success with which the demands of the American market are immediately met is an indication of the dryness of our soil. Canadian writing responds quickly to the favourable rains of American demand, advertising has drawn increasingly on intensive research in special fields, and the effective disposal of Canadian volumes in the American market points to extensive research during the past quarter century. The soil has become richer in spite of its aridity, but it will not yet sustain much more than adventurers in advertising and journalism, such as the tourist business and a world war require. Probably Americans have written more about Canada than Canadians. The ungrateful task of pointing to Canadian limitations is undertaken, but without lasting effects. In the twenties Carleton W. Stanley, now President of Dalhousie University, wrote in The Hibbert Journal on Spiritual Conditions in Canada^[1] which was followed by replies and a rejoinder and general criticisms about fouling the nest and the neglect of numerous positive elements. The increasing concern with political activity has made necessary a revival of President Stanley’s protest. The Imperial Conference of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster brought to an end the long struggle for responsible government and autonomy. The part taken by Canada in the war and the aggressiveness of Sir Arthur Currie in securing recognition for Canadian troops and of Sir Robert Borden in his insistence on the place of Canada in the peace treaties brought demands for a new status in the British Commonwealth and in the League of Nations. Canadian troops demanded recognition of their contribution to Canada. Following the adjustment in external affair’s and the depression, political interest centred on domestic problems. The significance of the political change was reflected in the industrial, commercial, and financial world. The Grand Trunk was no longer controlled in London. The Hudson’s Bay Company extended the powers of a Canadian Committee. In ecclesiastical circles, British control was replaced by Canadian control.

The obsession with the spirit of politics deplored by Lord Morley in Great Britain is even more conspicuous in Canada. “The education of chiefs by followers and of followers by chiefs into the speedy abandonment of the traditions of centuries or the principles of a lifetime may conduce to the rapid and easy working of the machine. It marks the triumph of the political spirit which the author of The Prince, Machiavelli himself, might have admired.”^[2] The dominance of the press reflects the power of politics.

The universities have become imbued with the political spirit. The politicians of church and state combine with active intellects on the academic staff to produce an atmosphere conducive to political manipulation of a high order. No political body can pretend to anything like their achievements. Business men entrusted with the appointment of university presidents in the last bulwarks of colonialism have apparently been influenced by the slogan that native-born Canadians need not apply. That aristocracies are built up in new countries in relation to the time of arrival of immigrant ancestors can scarcely be said to apply to universities. Native-born Canadians appointed to these positions have been sensitive to the importance of maintaining a liberal tradition by appointing British-born and very rarely American-born members to the staff. Canadians have been compelled to accept appointments in the United States and even the British-born with exceptional qualifications have been compelled to follow the same path because of the attraction of salaries, libraries, and general equipment. ‘First class’ British-born graduates of the older institutions are not attracted to Canada, though first class graduates of provincial institutions have found openings attractive. Expansion of universities after the last war brought large numbers of British-born to take the place of the generation of Canadians lost in the war.

The results have been fortunate and unfortunate. British-born university presidents have been in turn able and less able, but always facile. In the main the contributions toward the development of higher education have been made by Canadian-born presidents, liberal traditions notwithstanding. The effect of appointments of British-born members to the staff has varied with subjects, institutions and individuals. In the field of history by far the most important advances have been made by Canadians. Indeed, the political influence requires close attention to Canadian subjects and the British-born have shown neither the ability nor the energy effectively to maintain their concern with the history of Europe. Far removed from original sources of their material, they have worked under a heavy handicap and have tended to be facile and void rather than learned and profound. In the social sciences British-born members of staff have contributed enormously in the development of various subjects and in coöperation with Canadians. The position of the Canadian-born has been strengthened, as may be seen in the decline in appointments of British and Americans to Royal Commissions. The Sirois Commission significantly included only Canadian-born. In the humanities British appointments have been numerous, but Canadian appointments have been on the increase. Unfortunately the professionalization of the humanities in which individuals “learn, to teach” accentuates a trend toward mediocrity and towards vigorous political activity. Intensive research is handicapped by restricted library facilities and a reluctance to use the libraries of the United States. The sciences have gained through government support, particularly in the federal field during the war period. Research has been carried on over a vast area with conspicuous success. The field is no longer exposed to the drain of able young Canadians or British-born to Great Britain and the United States, and the British-born have reached the upper age limits. It may be that the status of the sciences has been overshadowed in universities by developments in the government, and that the war has left university scientific departments as centres of recruiting and training rather than of fundamental research.

The change in the character of imperialism in Great Britain since the last war has contributed to a change in the character of colonialism in Canada. Labour imperialism has tended to replace British imperialism. The pressure tends to turn from Ireland and India towards Canada. Numbers of British-born in Canadian universities have been actively interested in legislation involving the creation of government posts. It is little short of a formula that young British immigrants should begin life in Canada as so-called socialists, radicals with leftist views, and at the proper time accept the essential government position at the highest price. Numbers have been concerned in a dilatory fashion with the development of a new party, but in the main have had little difficulty in accepting the more solid preferments of a government post. The war has fortunately removed all hesitancy, and numbers have hastened to the call of the bureaucracies in Ottawa. This has reached such a point, that in lighter vein it has been said Canadian birth, participation in the last war, and non-attendance at Queen’s University present a combination practically precluding an appointment with the federal government. But a number of the young British-born have kept the faith, with a highly alert group of Canadians trained in British universities to sponsor a third party. The latter constitute the élite of Canadian intellectual life and reserve the utmost contempt for intellectuals trained in Canada or the United States. They have completely absorbed the snobbery of a class structure and have been active in the development of the ideology of the class struggle. The pass-words are production for use and not for profit. It is highly improbable that adherence to this party will secure the expected rewards, since an election of a British-born Prime Minister in Canada can hardly be conceived.

The effect of politics on Canadian life can be seen most clearly in the associations in which members of the academic profession participate. The Canadian Historical Association, the Canadian Political Science Association, and the Canadian Social Science Research are a reflection of the solid contributions which follow coöperation between native-born and British-born. The unfortunate results of politics are shown most clearly in Section Two of the Royal Society, which exists as the chief organization of the humanities. A penetrating study of the names of the Fellows of Section Two and of the recipients of medals will prove illuminating to any student with a keen interest in the higher politics.

Canada cannot become a nation with a cultural development comparable to that of the United States and Great Britain without a sustained interest in the development of its universities. The political spirit will cease to hamper their activities only after colonialism has been defeated. Only then will Canada emerge as a nation with universities which can be compared with those of the United States and Great Britain. Only then will Canada be able to take a definite place and be entitled to respect from other countries in the shaping of world affairs. Only by her own self-respect can she command the respect of others. Such a development will allay the bitterness of nationalism and pave the way to whole-hearted participation in the work of a post-war world. With concentration on scholarship, graduate schools can be built up to attract not only Canadians, but others. Until we reach this stage we can scarcely avoid joining the great rush of Gadarene swine. Scholarship provides the essentials for that steadiness and self-respect by which Canada can become a nation worthy of those who have fought and given up their lives in the last war or in this.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

A cover which is placed in the public domain was created for this ebook.

[The end of Some English-Canadian University Problems by Harold A. Innis]