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Nationalism - Just another extremism

By Samir | June 24, 2010

“Il n y aucun lien entre le sang et la terre.”
-Jean Chrétien

The above is one of my favourite quotes from, easily, my favourite Canadian political figure of all time. As both La Fête Nationale du Québec and Canada Day are upon us, I just thought I’d throw it out there again. Chrétien was one of the most fervent defenders of Canada. Even before his instrumental role in the 1982 repatriation of the constitution, and his last-minute heroics in the 1995 referendum, JC was always there for his country. Yet in the wake of 1995’s near-debacle, he found the time to utter a deceptively simple phrase, but with a more profound meaning than meets the eye.

People took it very often to mean that French-Canadians didn’t have some sort of entitlement to the lands of Québec, that before the French-Canadians, the land belonged to the Amerinidians, and that one day, maybe someone else would own the land. To be honest, that’s probably how JC meant it.

But looking on it more deeply, one must realize that it’s not to land that we shouldn’t be attached, it’s to national identity in general. Today, no one pines for the lost cultures of the Sumatrans, or, say, the Phoenicians. Their culture slowly became interwoven with others, which became interwoven again and again until only remnants of those cultures exist today, as threads in the fabrics of today’s modern cultures. The slow evolution is generally unstoppable, it’s just the nature of humanity.

Already, both Quebecois and Canadian cultures are increasingly meshed with American culture, European culture (oddly, where both originated centuries ago). As the world becomes a smaller place, it’s arrogant to expect that these things we hold so dear today will continue to exist as we know them forever.

So rather than define identity with nationalism, it’s always better to enjoy nationalism for what it is - a transient set of values, riches, foods, customs and axioms. It’s always dangerous to be too attached, lest we become extremist. Once Canada’s most ardent defender, even JC knew it (even if he didn’t want to admit it).

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