True Patriot Love: Four Generations in Search of Canada [Hardcover]

Michael Ignatieff (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 211 pages
• Publisher: Viking Canada (April 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670069728
• ISBN-13: 978-0670069729
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,225,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A political document that addresses fascinating questions & issues, not just for Canadians, February 11, 2010

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S. McGee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: True Patriot Love: Four Generations in Search of Canada (Hardcover)

Michael Ignatieff, leader of Canada's Liberal Party and a candidate for Prime Minister whenever the next elections are held, obviously hopes this book will be his version of Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. It doesn't quite make it, perhaps because nothing in Canadian political life approaches the emotive drama of race and the role it plays in the United States. Still, it's an intriguing and compelling book, even for someone who isn't Canadian.

First of all, Ignatieff knows what he's talking about when he opines on nationalism in the opening and closing sections of the book, which bracket three biographical sketches of his maternal ancestors, members of the Grant family. He's seen the ugly side of nationalism in the Balkans, and has written some interesting and thoughtful books on the subject, such as Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism. None of his comments here are tremendously revelatory from a scholarly or news perspective, however; it's pretty much standard fare to describe Canada as poised between an economic and a historic/cultural fact; ties to the US competing with ties to the now-defunct British Empire. The challenge is in forging an identity that doesn't rely on absolute rejection or an absolute embrace of either, but is distinctively Canadian. Not surprisingly, Ignatieff is better at highlighting the questions than on providing answers, but that still leaves this as an interesting and occasionally thought-provoking book

Still, what is here in the biographical sections turns out to be more insightful than I had imagined. George Munro Grant played a key role in helping to forge east-west ties that might unite Canada by traveling across Canada (by steamer, canoe and horseback) shortly after Confederation in the 1870s, clearing the way for the construction of the trans-Canada railway. His son, William, went on to be a big supporter of the Empire and Canada's role within it, only to emerge as a champion of a strong Canada with an independent voice in the wake of the First World War. William's son -- and Ignatieff's uncle -- George Grant, became a key public intellectual during the 1960s, when debates over Canada's ties to the United States reached fever pitch. Was Canada nothing more than a branch plant economy and political satellite? In "Lament of a Nation", Grant answered yes, firmly.

The third segment is the least successful, perhaps because shadows of a family rift between George and his sister, Ignatieff's mother, hang over it in ways that make Ignatieff visibly uncomfortable discussing it. It's also still an emotive issue within Canada in the wake of the war with Afghanistan, and Ignatieff's reaction to it has to take into consideration the fact that he could become Canada's political leader, in a position where his words will come back to haunt him as he tries to forge a working relationship with the United States -- a country over which Canada has far less influence than its political or economic importance would indicate it might.

While some have criticized this book for not addressing what it means to be a Canadian in today's Canada, I don't think that is what Ignatieff set out to accomplish. Rather, he is wrestling with the legacy of these other defining Canadian institutions -- the transnational railroad and the Empire -- in the context of today. He's not trying to define Canadian nationalism in high-falutin' terms, but in the terms that any nation state must to retain authority in a globalized world: is there something about Canada, the concept, that attracts loyalty and love, that makes it worthwhile for its citizens above and beyond simply having a government that delivers services. (Certainly, elsewhere in the world, from Kurdistan to the Basque region, people are fighting to have a nation; a status that Canada has and sometimes doesn't know quite how to deal with.) How his Grant ancestors answered the question in the past may inform Canadians' future answers.

The obvious audience for this book are the Canadians who may be called on to vote his party into power. Nonetheless, this would make an excellent introduction to Canada for any American who doesn't have a clue of their northern neighbor's history. (As most don't...) That history is combined with a sense of the experiences that have forged a distinct sense of being Canadian in the past and even an understanding of certain concepts (Canadians have the words "peace, order and good government" in their founding government, whereas in the US it's "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness") that produce policies that flummox Americans. It's also a reminder that the American model of patriotism is not the only one, even as a patriotism based on anti-Americanism is not a sustainable one. This book's potential importance transcends its small size, limited scope and obvious political function, for those interested enough to ponder the broad questions it raises.

Ignatieff earlier wrote a volume about his 20th century immigrant ancestors from White Russia, The Russian Album. While the Grants were quintessential Canadians of the 19th century -- Scots thinkers, clergymen and scholars -- the Ignatieffs became characteristic of Canada in the 20th century, focused on the pragmatic elements of literally building the country's political and economic infrastructure.