Fearful symmetry
Subtitle: the fall and rise of Canada's founding values
By: Brian Lee Crowley.
Publisher: Key Porter Books
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Toronto
Language: eng
Number of pages: 359
ISBN-13: 9781554701889
Subjects: Public welfare -- Canada -- History; Nationalism -- Québec (Province) -- History; Welfare state -- Canada -- History
Description: "Two forces have shaped Canada profoundly in the last fifty years: the entry of Boomers into the workforce and the rise of a separatist Quebec nationalism. Large-scale unemployment plus the threat of the breakup of the country caused Canada to jettison its traditional values--a ferocious work ethic, a commitment to the family as the most important social institution, a suspicion of overweening government, and an aversion to dependence--in favour of a vast expansion of the welfare state. We rapidly became a nation of "takers" rather than the "makers" we had always been. But the tide is about to turn with a vengeance: the Boomers are retiring and Quebec nationalism is increasingly a spent force, presaging a resurgence of our founders' values that had served us so well"--From publisher's description.