＜基調講演＞“Something Still to Find”:
Why Canadian Studies are still relevant (1)Stuart Gill
Why are we interested in studying Canada? It is more often than not personal.
It may be because of our own studies in Canada, a partnership with a Canadian or
we are originally from Canada. In all cases we probably have an emotional attachment to and a passionate interest in the country. In my own case, all reasons arepresent. On my maternal side my aunt migrated to Canada in 1945. Half of my family ended up in Canada. I studied at the University of Edinburgh and from 1976-78
was involved in the Centre of Canadian Studies. From 1978-1984 I was a CanadianCommonwealth Scholar at the Universities of Toronto and Guelph. Last, but notleast, I married a Canadian. It was in the midst of my postgraduate studies that theInternational Council for Canadian Studies of which I am now the President wasformed in 1981.
The title of the lecture is taken from a book of poems by Douglas LePan published one year after the ICCS came into being. LePan was born in Toronto andeducated at the University of Toronto and at Merton College Oxford. He was a diplomat, poet, novelist and also professor of literature. During the Second World War
he served on the staff of the Canadian High Commission in London and in the Canadian army in Italy. He served as a special assistant to Lester Pearson and in London, Washington and Ottawa until he left the diplomatic service in 1959. He wassubsequently a Professor at Queen’s University and Toronto, Principal of University
College, Toronto, and ultimately a University Professor and Senior Fellow of Massey
College.
“Something still to find” has about it a note of hope, of expectation and surprise.
There is I will suggest still considerable hope for more to be discovered about Canada
as it is studied from a distance. Canada continuing to be studied from abroad will
provide an ongoing dialogue of new readings of what Canada, was, is and is yet to be.
This question of identity has been an on-going and it appears never ending topic for
Canadian academics. To this end it would be fitting at the start of this lecture to readan extract from the diplomat and academic Douglas LePan’s Something Still to Find:– 83 –Streams running onunder the grave eyes that have seen and suffered everything
and I know that there is something still to findStreams running on
into a presence that has moved past need and banter
to delight, beckoning to islands where
the winds blow soft, where the trees all smell of honey.(2)In spite of the Canadian government since Prime Minister Harper turning its
back on the importance of the study of Canada from outside I believe that we still
have something to find and offer in academic insight and public diplomacy.
Whenever I pass through Canadian border security the officials are always
more than a little surprised that I am going to Ottawa because of my interest in Canadian Studies. The idea that others may be interested in Canada appears to somestill to be strange even if President Obama announced in the Canadian Parliament
on 29 June 2016,“The World Needs More Canada.”This statement paraphrased
U2 front-man Bono’s comments in 2003. Standing here today at this conference recognising 90 years of Canada-Japan diplomatic relations we all surely believe that
Bono’s statement is worth repeating –“The World Needs More Canada.”

Canada – An Overseas Perspective
Canadians have an overwhelming interest in what it means to be Canadian.
Historians, political scientists, poets and novelists among others have spilt much ink
over this issue. As the Canadian journalist and author, Roy MacGregor wrote in his
book, Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and People:

Canadians, I sometimes think, do lead the world in one matter. Not hockey, notpulp production not snow not even potholes, but in picking through their own bellybutton lint. For a people known for their resourcefulness, this can often seem adreadful waste of one’s most important resource: time.(3)MacGregor goes on that Canadians are obsessed with“self-introspection”as– 84 –

contrasted with their neighbours to the south. This inferiority complex MacGregor
suggests is a feature of having been part of the British colonial world. He writes:
Several people have suggested that this inferiority mindset has its sourcein the colonial mentality found throughout the former British Empire, a deeprooted sense that whatever is Canadian or Indian or Australian or South
African is not quite up to standard. The sun never set on the British Empire,but not much light shone down upon it. A sense of unworthiness was just one of
the struggles Commonwealth nations had to overcome as they came into theirown.“My generation of Canadians,”culture critic Robert Fulford told Malcolm,“grew up believing that, if we were very good or smart, or both, we would

someday graduate from Canada.”(4)As a Scot, living in Australia, with an interest in the Scottish diaspora I havesympathy for this interpretation of Canada and Canadians.
As a student studying Canadian history and in particular Canadian-American
relations in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the University of Toronto it was difficult to escape the tensions that existed between the two (or three) nations thatshared the North American continent not to mention the many First Nations. Nationalist concerns had grown throughout the 1970s with the developments within
Quebec where Canadian federation was starting to be questioned. This brought out
a nationalist response from the other provinces where there were nationalist stirrings even from the federal New Democratic Party. A growing nationalism was alsokindled by other developments south of the border – the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, the growing awareness of U.S. corporate power in Canada, and the U.S.
dominance over culture. This was summarised by the Toronto historian, William
Kilbourn, who wrote at the beginning of the 1970s of Canada:
this two cultured, multi-ghettoed, plural community, this non-nation, naysaying no place of un-Eden, this faceless unidentifiable blank on the map,‘thiswind that lacks a flag’, this Canada of ours.(5)He goes on:
Canada, merely by existing, does offer a way and a hope, an alternative toinsanity… everywhere in the twentieth century man is becoming American… is– 85 –

moving in some way towards a condition of high industrialization, affluence andleisure, instant communication, an urban man-made environment, and a minglingof cultures and traditions in a mobile, classless global society.(6)Kilbourn believed that since Canada was the closest to the U.S. in termsof modelling its culture it also provided a North American alternative to theUnited States. It was in this context of the 1970s with nationalism rampant anddiscussion over identity that Canadian Studies rose to prominence promoted by thegovernment of the day.
It will be noted that the North American Partnership still understandably looms
large. Particularly under the Trump Presidency and recent NAFTA talks - now theUnited States Mexico Canada Agreement.
However, much has happened in the international sphere since the 1970s. As
Roy MacGregor’s book, and others since 2008 in the same genre, demonstrate. Whatit means to be Canadian is still an important topic of debate. Increasingly, however,there is an international perspective being brought to this by the Canadian intellectual community of the “diaspora” both Canadian born writing from overseas andthose who have adopted Canada as a study area. One of the most interesting books
to appear with this perspective is from the, to borrow a Scottish expression, “auldenemy” in the cultural wars, the U.S. Patrick James, Professor and Director of the
School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, and Mark
Kasoff, Professor Emeritus of Economics and founding Director of the CanadianStudies Center at Bowling Green State University, edited a book, Canadian Studies
in the New Millenium, published by the University of Toronto Press.(7) The book also
published in 2008 offered a new perspective on Canada written by and large by U.S.
academics.

The world continues to shrink as we delve deeper into the twenty-first century
and many countries continue to look to Canada as a balancing perspective to the U.S.
Recent Canadian Studies conferences have focussed on Peace and Security and Democracy and Law including Human Rights.

– 86 –

Origins of The International Council of Canadian Studies
During the late 1960s and early 1970s an interest in Canadian Studies developed both in the USA and the UK under the auspices of individual champions. In
the USA through work at the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine
and the School of Advanced International Study at John Hopkins University. In
1971 Canadianists from across the USA met at Duke University and Association of
Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) became the first Canadian Studies
Association in the world.
As an area for academic study in the UK, Canadian Studies began at Edinburgh
University in 1974. The mid 1970s saw two initiatives that were to sustain thegrowth of Canadian Studies in the UK. The first of these was the establishment of
the Academic Relations Unit at Canada House, and the second was the creation of
the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS) in 1975.
Also in the 1970s the Canadian government through the Department ofExternal Affairs began funding Canadian Studies programs internationally. It
led to an increase in the 70s and early 80s of the number of Canadian Studies
Associations:
Association for Canadian Studies in the US (1971)
Association for Canadian Studies (Canada 1973).
British Association for Canadian Studies (1975)
French Association for Canadian Studies (1976)
Italian Association for Canadian Studies (1979)
Japanese Association for Canadian Studies (1979)
Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries (1980)
Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand (1982)
Association for Canadian Studies in Ireland (1982)
This proliferation of associations led to the founding of the International Council of Canadian Studies in 1981 with money from External Affairs. Throughout thelate 70s there had been talk of such a body and as Serge Jaumain recounts in his
history of ICCS:
The idea… came to fruition in Halifax, at the close of an international
conference on Canadian Studies (May29-30, 1981) that had been organized– 87 –

by the ACS in conjunction with the Annual General Meeting of the Learned
Societies. Its president, James E Page, with the financial backing of the
Department of Foreign Affairs, invited to this event representatives from nine
regions of the world in which Canadian Studies were establishing a beachhead,
Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, the Germanspeaking countries, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.(8)The first President was James Page who had worked closely with Thomas
Symons in preparing the Symons Report, a two volume document published in 1975
reviewing Canadian Studies in yet another attempt to define what it meant to be
Canadian. The main discussion at Dalhousie University in Halifax revolved aroundthe Symon’s Report,“To Know Ourselves.”(9)The formation of ICCS and a further input of funds led to the further expansion of associations:
Nordic Association for Canadian Studies (1984)
Association for Canadian Studies in China (1984)
Association for Canadian Studies in the Netherlands (1985)
Israel Association for Canadian Studies (1985)
Indian Association for Canadian Studies (1985)
Spanish Association for Canadian Studies (1988)
Russian Association for Canadian Studies (1992) - originally Soviet Association(1989)
Brazilian Association for Canadian Studies (1991)
Venezuelan Association for Canadian Studies (1991)
Korean Association for Canadian Studies (1992)
Mexican Association for Canadian Studies (1992)
Association for Canadian Studies in Argentina (1997)
Polish Association for Canadian Studies (1998)
Central European Association for Canadian Studies (2003)
Canadian Studies Network (2005)
Other groups that associated with the ICCS included the Centre d’Etudes Canadiennes de l’Universite Libre de Bruxelles (1982), American Council for Quebec
Studies (1980) and Catedra de Estudios sobre Canada (CES). Universidad de la Habana (1994).

– 88 –

Japan and Canada
Given that this conference is taking place under the auspices of JACS and is in
the 90th year of Canada-Japanese diplomatic relations let me turn our attention tothat relationship. Diplomatic relations began officially in 1928 with the opening of aJapanese consulate in Ottawa. In 1929 Canada opened a diplomatic post in Tokyo,
its first in Asia.
The oldest Canadian Studies association in Asia is the Japanese and one of thefounding members of ICCS. As in other parts of the world, Canadian studies did not
become a subject of major research in Japan until the late 1970s. Japanese interest
in Canada prior to that had been with regard to the life of Japanese immigrants to
Canada. Important amongst these works was Ken Adachi’s The Enemy that Never
Was: A History of Japanese Canadians (Toronto, 1976). Although this work was limited because of sources used it replaced two earlier works by C. H. Young and H. R. Y.
Reid, The Japanese Canadians (Toronto, 1938) which was an attempt to heal racialconflict in British Columbia. The other work was F. E. La Violette’s The CanadianJapanese and World War II: A Social and Psychological Account (Toronto, 1948). La
Violette examined the wartime crisis in the Japanese community and looked at federal government policy exploring the social and psychological impact of evacuation andrelocation.

There were some earlier works that dated back as far as 1909 and others in theearly years of the 20th century that focussed on industry and tourism. Alan Artibise,better known as an urban historian, a former President of ICCS wrote in 1990:
The growing interest in research on Canada by Japanese scholars can be
attributed to a wide variety of factors, ranging from the reputations of such wellknown Canadians as E Herbert Norman, Lester B Pearson and Pierre E Trudeau
to Expo ’67 and Anne of Green Gables. But if interest of the Japanese waspiqued by these people and events, it was nurtured and supported by a variety
of practical programs developed by Canada’s Department of External Affairs
that allowed Japanese scholars to visit and study in Canada. As well as theestablishment of JACS in 1977 was a pivotal event – it created a community ofscholars and the basic tools (bibliographies, newsletters, and a journal) required
to develop a field of research. Initially, the research undertaken focused on a
few obvious topics (such as Japanese-Canadians and Canada-Japan relations),– 89 –

but increasingly, it includes diverse topics within most of the fields in the social
sciences and humanities.(10)Such links helped to develop public diplomacy and greater understanding
between both nations leading from education to culture and culture to stronger
trade connections.

ICCS and Public Diplomacy
From its beginnings in 1981 the ICCS and its member associations have played
an important role in the Canadian government’s use of education for public diplomacy.
Evan H. Potter has written about this in his book Branding Canada (Montreal,
McGill-Queen’s Press, 2009) and also it is a topic taken up in Stephen Brooks,
Promoting Canadian Studies Abroad: Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy (London,
Palgrave 2018). Public diplomacy rests upon notions of persuasion, attractivenessand credibility as the ingredients of soft power. Persuasion has been the currency ofCanadian diplomacy as the country has not been rich enough to buy international
influence nor strong enough to bully its way to its objectives. In the end Canada’s
foreign policy comes down to the ability to be persuasive and that in turn depends on
how it is perceived and crucially its credibility.

Harvard Professor Joseph Nye coined the phrase soft power in 1990 acknowledging that at its core soft power, or the influence acquired through attraction,reflected the basic element of human interaction.(11) While an American may havecoined the term soft power the US is not the only country to recognize its significance. In Europe soft power has been a key part of diplomacy of countries such as
the UK, France, Germany and Italy, all of which lay claim to great cultures and allof which underpin their public diplomacy with dedicated institutions such as the
British Council and the Goethe Institute. We also see soft power in the appeal ofJapanese fashion and Japanese magna.
Soft power then is cultural power. Power in the diplomatic sense has been
defined as the ability to alter the behaviour of others to get what you want. There
are basically three ways to do that: coercion (sticks), payments (carrots) andattraction (soft power). Nye has had his critics and in recent days has shifted theidea of“soft power”to“smart power”defined as the use of hard and soft power– 90 –

instruments in a calculated and calibrated way to achieve outcomes in your favour.
Ideas of soft power did not sit easily with the Harper government since they wereseen as weak and superficial or even superficial to advancing“national”interests.
It could be argued that one of the greatest ways to promote Canada and its soft
power was through its Canadian Studies program. The ability to bring diverse voices to the table from 7000 scholars in 70 countries as was the case in 2012 when the
Canadian Studies program was cut. The ability to understand and engage with thestories of others particularly in areas of the world where Canada wants to play – theAmerican continent and Europe but also in the emerging economies of the Asia-Pacific region. In this region which is remarkably diverse where multiple others holdsignificance indeed where multiple others might be encountered not only between
but also within state. Surely among many nations Canada understands this.
Soft power through Canadian Studies offers a way to bring the stories of ourAsia-Pacific region to the fore, breaking down notions of otherness. For what it isworth perhaps Canada needs to revisit how it is portraying its self in the world andthere is a need for a new national conversation about soft power. There has been a
recent Senate review of cultural diplomacy but the missing element has been education and in particular Canadian Studies. This has been missing since 2012. Education spoken of as international student mobility is something that is desired but
seen more as a positive contributor to the national accounts through international
student fees.

ICCS, Associations and Support of the Government
It has been significant that since the founding of ICCS in 1981 there has beena dependence on the Canadian Government for funding through the Department ofExternal Affairs/Global Affairs. For thirty years there was a bi-partisan approachto the funding of Canadian Studies. In 2012 the Department of Foreign Affairs andInternational Trade (DFAIT) under the leadership of former Minister John Baird
entirely cancelled the“Understanding Canada’ program at a saving of five million
dollars. The most recent Canadian Government program before it was cancelled entitled“Understanding Canada”had priorities as set out below:– 91 –

•

Peace and Security (Afghanistan)•

North America Partnership (including key Canada-US bilateral issues)•

Economic Development and Competitiveness•

Democracy, Rule of law, Human Rights•

Managing Diversity•

Environment / Energy•

Theme(s) directly related to missions’ strategic priorities in the region

Surely all worthy topics to be pursued by Associations and in projecting
Canadian values around the world. Since then the ICCS in a recent review has
added Gender and Indigenous issues to the research topics.(12)Despite the withdrawal of funding, most of the international associations havecontinued to work. Sometimes local embassies and high commissions have tried tohelp. Unfortunately many of the newer associations are in great difficulty. Does thatmatter to Canada? I would argue yes at a time when friends are needed particularlyin the USA with NAFTA negotiations but also among ASEAN countries as Canada
projects itself in the Pacific Rim.
It is significant that Canadian government support of research – particularly
grants to allow Japanese scholars to work in Canada – have played an especially
important role. There were a number of scholars in Japan who have either received
post-graduate degrees from Canadian universities or who devoted their careers toteaching, research and writing on Canadian topics. These scholars are fast disappearing.
The world needs more Canada and dare I say Canada has something still to findthat can be provided by its international scholars who are studying Canada.

As Douglas LePan wrote:

Streams running on…
to cities that still bear freshness of discovery,
swept by a paddler’s breeze and washed continuallyby searches and researches for something still to find…

– 92 –NOTE(1) This lecture was delivered at the 43 rd Annual Conference of the Japanese
Association for Canadian Studies in the 90th year of Japan-Canada diplomatic
relations. I would like to thank very much indeed JACS and particular theimmediate past President, Professor Yuki Shimomura, for the invitation toparticipate. I would also acknowledge Professor Shimomura and congratulate
him as the President of Kobe International University on its 50th Anniversary
and hosting the JACS Conference. Also thanks to the current President,
Professor Nobuyuki Sato of Chuo University and members of the JACS
committee for their generous hospitality.
(2) Douglas LePan, Something Still To Find (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart,1982).
(3) Roy MacGregor, Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and its People (Toronto:
Penguin, 2008), 39.
(4) Ibid., 41. The reference to Malcolm is Andrew Malcolm who produced The
Canadians.
(5) William Kilbourn, Canada: A Guide to the Peaceable Kingdom (Toronto:
Macmillan, 1970), xi.
(6) Ibid., p. xi, xiii.
(7) Patrick James & M. Kasoff, eds., Canadian Studies in the New Millenium (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2008).
(8) S. Jaumain,“The Canadianists: The ICCS, 25 Years in the Service of CanadianStudies,”(Ottawa: ICCS, 2006), 20.
(9) T. H. B. Symons, “To Know Ourselves: The report of the commission on Canadianstudies,” (Ottawa: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 1975).
(10) Alan F J Artibise “Pacific Views of Canada: Canadian Studies Research in AsiaOceania,” International Journal of Canadian Studies, 1-2, (Spring-Fall 1990).
(11) Joseph Nye, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (New York:
Basic Books, 1990). Most of Nye’s work subsequently has been in developing thisthesis further eg., Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (NewYork: Public Affairs, 2004).
(12) In a post 9/11 world it has been asrued that a new approach needs to be taken
in area studies. See, S. Hodgett and P. James eds., Necessary Travel: New Area
Studies and Canada in Comparative Perspective (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington
Press, 2018). Especially the chapter by Colin Coates, “The State Against
Canadian Studies.”(President ICCS; Master, Queen’s College; The University of Melbourne)– 93 –