Day of the Georges

It’s been 60 years since Canadian philosopher George Grant published his book Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism. The book’s legacy is deep — it’s widely considered to have sparked a fire within Canadian politics, asking its audience to strengthen a truly Canadian identity in the shadow of a dominant United States.

Sound timely?

Last Saturday, Nova Scotia writer and poet George Elliott Clarke livecast into a University of King’s College lecture hall to talk about Grant. Sitting down with The Signal beforehand, he chatted about Canadian destiny, “maple leaf independence” and American books.

This isn’t your first time speaking at a King’s symposium. What’s it like speaking to us out east?

Oh, that’s a great question because I’m from out east. I was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia (and) grew up in Halifax. I’m an Atlantic Canadian. I’m a Black Atlantic Canadian. So it’s basically coming home.

In the context of the symposium, it’s especially important because once he retired from teaching at McMaster University, Grant decided to make his home in Nova Scotia. And I think one of the reasons why Nova Scotia appealed to him is because it was … not as commercialized, not as capitalist-oriented, not as postmodern as other parts of North America where he had been living.

Why is Lament for a Nation still worth studying after 60 years?

What Grant (asks) us to do is think seriously about what it means for Canada to be a sovereign state.

(His) argument is that the defeat of Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative government in 1963 represented the defeat of Canadian nationalism. Grant (says) we need to lament the death of Canada as a sovereign state — that Canada has ceased to be an independent country. He’s writing this in 1965, and he truly believes that Canada no longer exists as a sovereign state.

In his view, because (we had) 22 years of continuous Liberal governance through the Depression, the Second World War, and into the industrialization (of) Ontario and Quebec, when we became integrated economically with America … Therefore we no longer had an independent foreign policy, even if we still had a maple leaf of independence related to our domestic policy. That we had basically signed off on becoming part of the American empire.

Can you share a little bit about how you felt when you first read George Grant?

Whatever kind of intellect I have is at least partly indebted to (my mother) Geraldine Elizabeth Clark, unfortunately deceased in 2000, and an expert in early childhood education.

My father, on the other hand, always worked for the railway, and then he was a taxi driver. He drove for Yellow Cab in Halifax for 20 years until 2005, when he passed away. I like to describe him as a self-taught intellectual, a working-class autodidact. He was also a visual artist and he was a great reader of things. He believed in activism, and he believed in social justice as a Black man. For whatever reason, he picked up Lament for a Nation, and it was in our household library.

So I’m a teenager becoming a socialist. I read it when I was 19 for the first time. I did not read it critically until I was well into my 40s. I already knew a little bit about it because when I was 10, I was a fire-breathing Canadian nationalist. I was really into Canadian nationalism in a big way, because I was sick and tired of reading all the American books in the library … Even as a 10-year-old (I was) kind of upset — why aren’t there Canadian books here?

When I read it at age 19, 1979, I did not read it critically. I read it as if it were the voice of truth itself from your George Grant. I came under the spell of his understanding of Canadian destiny. And what I took from it in my readings as a young man was the idea that we really had to resist American imperialism. (This was) particularly important for English Canadians because we had ready access to American cultural products, whether you’re talking about music or film, theatre, Broadway, Hollywood. I mean, all of it.

I also took to preaching against economic integration and free trade.

Fast forward, I’m 28 years old. I’m working for Howard McCurdy, (the) second Black member of Parliament, from Windsor (Ontario). And I’m trying to make sure he gets re-elected so I can keep my job. The election happened right after George Grant died in 1988. I reread Lament for a Nation, and I was getting ready to go to campaign with Howard to make sure he got re-elected. And was freshly concerned about the idea that we would be giving up our sovereignty, giving up our independence by going into economic integration with the United States.

And how do you feel about it now?

Grant was important (to my) understanding how cultures have a reality about them. You can call it nationalism, you can call it patriotism. There is something about cultures that are rooted in (geography) as well as built around industry.

So Nova Scotia, for instance: You can talk about the fur trade, you can talk about the fisheries, you can talk about the forestry, you can talk about mining, shipbuilding as well. These were all core industries that helped to build a Nova Scotian economy as well as a sensibility.  

That’s a long way of saying that Grant’s thinking on nationalism helped me articulate the reality of a separate Black Canadian writing tradition. Separate from African American, separate from the Caribbean. Separate from Africa. Separate from Black populations in South America. And why? Because of the fact that the meteorological, the climactic, the geographic, the industrial, economic, philosophical, political, social systems of Canada are unique.

The great thing about Lament for a Nation now is that it reminds us that being a sovereign state is important. That being able to decide your own foreign policy is important. Being able to be independent to the extent of not having to be overly reliant on trade, especially with just one trading partner is extremely important. We have to thank Trump for reminding us that Canadians always were alone in the world. We are alone and we need to be proud about that. We need to be defiant about that. We need to build friendships with other nations, including nations that we historically have not been close to because we were tied to Britain or the United States.

Lament for a Nation teaches us that Canada is an important country. It may be a middle power, but it’s not a middling power.

Clarke will be back in Nova Scotia in February 2026, to host the 5 Poets Breaking into Song event at the Halifax Public Libraries.