Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests

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In this lecture, based on his 2017 book of the same title, Professor Russell will make the case that the distinctive character of Canada is best understood as the result of the interaction of Canada’s three foundational pillars, Aboriginal Canada, French Canada and English-speaking Canada. It is the survival of the two smaller pillars as “nations within” and English-speaking Canada’s relinquishing its desire to be a simple one-nation state, that has enabled Canada to become the world’s leading multinational, multicultural country.”

BIOGRAPHY
Peter H. Russell is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto where he has taught since 1958. He was the Principal of Innis College and the founding Principal of Senior College, the University of Toronto’s youngest college for its oldest scholars. His writings and public activities cover the fields of judicial, constitutional, Aboriginal and parliamentary politics. His most recent books are Two Cheers for Minority Government, Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis, Recognizing Native Title: Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism and, in 2017, Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests. He has served as the President of the Canadian Political Science Association and Chair of the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy. He is the recipient of honorary degrees from a number of universities, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada.