The Growth of Canadian Nationalism: Canada as a Multilingual Imagined Community and an International Peacemaker under the Lester B. Pearson Administration

Abstract

This paper examines how Lester B. Pearson’s Administration created a Canadian identity that transcended linguistic differences to boost Canadian nationalism and strengthen Canada’s position on the international stage. On the home front, the Pearson government implemented domestic strategies that balanced English-Canadian imperial sentiment and French-Canadian separatism. Simultaneously, through a foreign policy doctrine known as Pearsonian Internationalism, Pearson established an autonomous role for Canada outside the shadows of Britain and the United States. Through mediation in the Suez Crisis and opposition to the American bombing campaign in the Vietnam War, the administration cemented Canada’s reputation as a neutral mediator, humanitarian peacemaker, and peaceable middle power.