Canada's identity crisis: Pierre Trudeau and the introduction of multicultural policy

Abstract

This thesis contextualizes the decision to enact official multiculturalism in Canada and argues that it was an expression of themes and desires consistent in Pierre Trudeau’s political philosophy from his earliest political writings. It also discusses the way that multiculturalism was an attempt to solve immediate issues of French-Canadian nationalism and assesses the reasons for its failure to do so. Writings on multiculturalism are often nebulous because they are tied to complex and emotional questions of identity, and this thesis offers useful grounding in bringing the discussion back to the context when it was enacted.