"This typical old Canadian form of racial and religious hate": Anti-Catholicism and English Canadian Nationalism, 1905-1965

Abstract

<p>I examine the central influence of anti-Catholicism upon the construction of English Canadian nationalism during the first half of the twentieth century. Anti-Catholicism provided an existing rhetorical and ideological tradition and framework within which public figures and other Canadians communicated their diverse visions of an ideal Canada. The study of anti-Catholicism problematizes the rigid separation that many scholars have posited between a conservative ethnic nationalism and a progressive civic nationalism. Often times these very civic values were inextricable from a context of Britishness. Hostility to Catholicism was not limited only to the staunchly Anglophile Conservative party; indeed the importance of anti-Catholicism as a component of Canadian nationalism lies in its presence across the political and intellectual spectrum. Catholicism was perceived to inculcate values antithetical to British traditions. It was a medieval faith that stunted the “natural” development of its adherents, preventing them from becoming responsible citizens in a modern democracy. The concentration of Catholicism in Quebec further inflamed many in Canada who saw French Canadian Catholics as anachronistic barriers to a united, democratic and modern Canada.</p>