Ian McKay and Jamie Swift dissect Canada's re-branding into a "Warrior Nation"

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 5:30pm

251 Bank Street
2nd Floor
Ottawa, ON
K2P 1W9

Join authors Ian McKay and Jamie Swift as they dissect Canada's military re-branding into a "Warrior Nation."

Once known for peacekeeping, Canada is becoming a militarized nation whose apostles—the New Warriors—are fighting to shift public opinion. New Warrior zealots seek to transform postwar Canada’s central myth-symbols. Peaceable kingdom. Just society. Multicultural tolerance. Reasoned public debate. Their replacements? A warrior nation. Authoritarian leadership. Permanent political polarization.

Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety contains tales tales that cast a vivid light on a story that is crucial to Canada’s future; yet they are also compelling history. Swashbuckling marauder William Stairs, the Royal Military College graduate who helped make the Congo safe for European pillage. Vimy Ridge veteran and Second World War general Tommy Burns, leader of the UN’s first big peacekeeping operation, a soldier who would come to call imperialism “the monster of the age.” Governor General John Buchan, a concentration camp developer and race theorist who is exalted in the Harper government’s new Citizenship Guide. And that uniquely Canadian paradox, Lester Pearson.

Warrior Nation is an essential read for those concerned by the relentless effort to conscript Canadian history.

Ian is one of Canada’s leading historians. In 2009 the Canadian Historical Association awarded him the Sir. John A. Macdonald Prize for the best book in Canadian history for his book "Reasoning Otherwise." Jamie Swift is the author of a dozen books, from biography and corporate muckraking to political theory and environmental politics. He has held the Michener Fellowship for Public Service Journalism at Queen’s.