Conscripting Canada's Past: The Harper Government and the Politics of Memory.

CANADIAN politics & government; HARPER, Stephen, 1959-; COLLECTIVE memory; CONSERVATISM; LIBRARY & Archives Canada; CANADA-Great Britain relations; CANADIAN military history; TWENTY-first century; POLITICAL attitudes

In this critical commentary on the political uses of memory in contemporary Canada, the author examines the conscription of the Canadian past by the Harper government since it came to power in 2006. He shows how the conservatives' reconstruction of the nation's past serves their broader project of reconstructing the nation tout court. Moreover, he presents the various strategies they have deployed to remake Canada's history in their own image: the increased emphasis on military history and on the ties that bind Canadians to the monarchy: the endeavour to cast the War of 1812 and the First World War as foundational events in the making of modern Canada; the creation of the Canadian Museum of History. The author also discusses the dismantling of Library and Archives Canada, the main repository of the nation's memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dans ce commentaire critique sur les usages politiques de la mémoire dans le Canada contemporain, l'auteur se penche sur l'embrigadement du passé canadien par le gouvernement de Stephen Harper, depuis son accession au pouvoir en 2006. Il montre comment la reconstruction du passé de la nation s'inscrit dans la volonté refondatrice des conservateurs et il présente les stratégies déployées par ces derniers pour refaire l'histoire du Canada à leur image: mise en exergue des liens unissant les Canadiens à la monarchie et de l'histoire militaire, tentative de faire de la Guerre de 1812 et de la Première Guerre mondiale des évènements fondateurs du Canada moderne, création du Musée canadien de l'histoire. En parallèle, l'auteur présente le démantèlement dont est victime Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, le principal dépositaire de la mémoire canadienne [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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