Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Birth of a Nation

Oct 31, 2015

The newest issue of Geist magazine (#98) is reaching the newsstands. My regular column looks at a new book by historian Christopher Moore, Three Weeks in Quebec City (Allen Lane), about the Quebec Conference of 1864.

The conference drew up the 72 resolutions that led to the creation of Canada three years later.

For me, the takeaway from Moore's fine book is that Canada was not born on the battlefields of Europe, as some would have it, or created by the national railway, as others claim. Rather it is something much more prosaic: the result of political negotiation and compromise.

Geist is available from fine magazine vendors everywhere.

UPDATE: The column is now online.