This thesis is concerned with the relationship between geopolitics and the emergence of a "nationalizing Canadian state" at the beginning of the twentieth century. Previous constitutional approaches and economic accounts are not sufficient to explain the emergence of a nationalizing Canadian state. All of these have been insightful, but like economic accounts of nationalism they ignore the larger realm of geopolitics. The literature on state formation has demonstrated that many factors stimulate state formation, but perhaps no other is as important as geopolitics. Geopolitics is concerned with diplomacy, arms, and territory. Such things are seldom discussed when writing about Canada. Canadians dislike being perceived as a military people. Yet geopolitical events have been central to the development of a distinct nationalizing Canadian state. During this period Canadian state elites took steps to gain further control of diplomacy, develop the military arm of the state so as to protect its sovereignty, and consolidate its territory. Additionally, all of these developments increased the scope of the state's functions. Moreover, under the leadership of Prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, the liberal nature of its regime meant that the national identity that began to develop had strong leanings towards civic nationalism. This thesis will attempt to integrate a sociological theory of nation-state building with the already established literature on the geopolitical relations between Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. Through the application of historical sociology, it illustrates the validity of exploring Canadian nation and state building in a geopolitical context and adds to the literature on state formation.

For fifty-seven years the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has been interpreting Canada to Canadians through documentary films which have simultaneously reflected and shaped the identity of this country and its peoples. This study is concerned with the NFB's documentary film portrayal of Native Canadians. Over the half century that the NFB has been making films about Canada's indigenous peoples their portrayal has undergone much change. Comparisons are made in this study between three of the earliest examples and three of the most recent examples of such films, with regard to attitude, voice, and technique. The effect these choices have upon representation is also discussed. Changes in technical, artistic, and philosophical aspects of the documentary film genre have also had a significant effect upon representation of Native peoples over the past fifty years, and are considered as well. Educationally, the study considers issues of manipulation of knowledge and hidden curricula. Playing an increasingly important role in education today, the media is a powerful tool both for teaching and for the inculcation of social norms. Suggestions are made as to ways in which this medium can best be used in the classroom.

Canadians faced an unprecedented threat after the Second World War. Located between two competing superpowers Canada could become the battlefield of a third world war. How did Canadians respond to the nuclear threat? The government of John Diefenbaker warned that millions of Canadians could die in a nuclear war. It strengthened Canada's contribution to the defence of North America and Europe and dedicated more resources to civil defence. Between 1957 and 1963 the domestic issue of nuclear arms acquisition and growing cold war tensions combined to draw attention to the threat. Newly founded anti-nuclear groups as well as Canadian unions, newspapers, magazines, student groups, churches and community organizations confronted nuclear issues. These groups shared a concern about survival but reached different conclusions about how Canada could avoid nuclear devastation. Their attempts to come to terms with the threat of nuclear war highlight broader themes in the history of postwar Canada including the influence of the cold war on the attitudes and behaviours of Canadians and the nation's relationship with the United States. / While more Canadians discussed the nuclear threat in these years the majority did not join the debate. Polls showed the public supported a nuclear defence. They believed few would survive a nuclear attack but did not worry about nuclear war. Economic concerns always ranked higher. The public was, on the whole, not mobilized either in preparation or in protest. Diefenbaker questioned what else he could do to increase public concern about survival. Both the civil defence program and the nuclear disarmament movement struggled. Polls showed that most Canadians did nothing to prepare for a war fought at home. Anti-nuclear groups remained small, divided over their platforms and methods and faced financial constraints. The debate about survival grew in the period between 1957 and 1963 but was dominated by elected officials, civil defence authorities and anti-nuclear activists. Even these groups found it difficult to balance the Soviet threat with the risk of a nuclear war and struggled to achieve policies that would provide security for the nation and its population.

This thesis examines the histories, publishing philosophies, and printing practices of two English-Canadian small-press publishers (The Porcupine's Quill of Erin, Ontario, and the Gaspereau Press of Kentville, Nova Scotia). By researching their publishing influences as well as the social and political climates in which each press operated, it is possible to analyze the decisions they made about why and how to publish certain kinds of texts. From there the thesis summarizes their publishing philosophies, and conducts extended analyses of the production of two specific literary texts: Endeared by Dark: The Collected Poems of George Johnston (PQL 1990), and Execution Poems (George Elliott Clarke, Gaspereau 2001). The historical research relies partly on secondary sources, and more generally the methodology was supplied by contemporary work in book history and textual criticism; however, the majority of the research, in chapters two and three particularly, has been culled from primary texts, press releases, newspaper features, web pages, and archival materials (letters, financial records, and so on). Overall, this thesis concludes that both the Porcupine's Quill and the Gaspereau Press emphasize an holistic approach to bookmaking, wherein each component part is capable of contextualizing, augmenting, celebrating, interpreting, historicizing, or socializing a literary text.

The colonial contribution to the French naval shipbuilding industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, explored within the context of the forest from which the resources for the industry were taken, was a remarkably successful venture that came to an end with the onset of war. In the past, the end of the French naval shipbuilding industry in New France has been attributed to the action or inaction of France that resulted in the inefficient use of forest resources. Issues of interest in, organization or support of colonial efforts by France, however, were nevertheless, limited by the immutable realities of the colonial forest environment. This thesis argues that the success of the industry, considered within the appropriate context, is a consequence of colonial persistence in the face of constraints imposed by the colonial forest environment---despite these other significant issues. / The official correspondence, written by colonial officials in New France, record colonial efforts to supply France with timber and detail the development of a naval shipbuilding industry in the colony. These documents provide source material for a case study that demonstrates the constraints imposed by the colonial forests on the experience of colonists, timber suppliers and shipbuilders. The colonial forest was not the same as the forests in France. A simple transfer of knowledge and practice from one forest to another was insufficient to deal with the differences in climate, forest age, tree species and the extent to which human activity affected the different forests. These differences challenged the way in which colonists could use forest resources for their own needs, for export to France and for naval construction. To consider this use of resources, without considering the differences between the available materials in the colony and those available in France, is to look at the story removed from the setting in which it took place. The unique forest in the colony was the setting in which colonial shipbuilding took place. Any study of the development of this industry, or any other industry that relied on forest resources, must give consideration to the constraints and realities of that forest.

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For fifty-seven years the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has been interpreting Canada to Canadians through documentary films which have simultaneously reflected and shaped the identity of this country and its peoples. This study is concerned with the NFB's documentary film portrayal of Native Canadians. Over the half century that the NFB has been making films about Canada's indigenous peoples their portrayal has undergone much change. Comparisons are made in this study between three of the earliest examples and three of the most recent examples of such films, with regard to attitude, voice, and technique. The effect these choices have upon representation is also discussed. Changes in technical, artistic, and philosophical aspects of the documentary film genre have also had a significant effect upon representation of Native peoples over the past fifty years, and are considered as well. Educationally, the study considers issues of manipulation of knowledge and hidden curricula. Playing an increasingly important role in education today, the media is a powerful tool both for teaching and for the inculcation of social norms. Suggestions are made as to ways in which this medium can best be used in the classroom. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate