User Profile

" it's my land to conquer "

A political culture is the general political values, attitudes, and beliefs that are widely held within a political community. (Mintz, E. Politics, Power, and the Common Good: An Introduction to Political Science. Toronto: Pierson Education Canada, 2009.)

The examples that Ibbitson uses to indicate the state of Canada’s political culture contrast to the definition from the textbook because they address a nation within Canada’s population: the FLQ, Rene Levesque’s campaign for an independent Quebec, and the referendum of November 1995 all address the minority of Canadians who feel that Quebec should separate from Canada. Ibbitson is narrowing the political culture of an entire country based on the movements of a select group within the population, arguing against the key words in the textbook definition ‘widely held’. One could say that what Ibbitson has described is not Canada’s political culture, but Quebec’s Separatists political culture, because they are a separate political community and their own subjective nation.

-Commentary on Ibbitson's 'Open and Shut: Why Canada has Stephen Harper and America has Barack Obama'.

profile - link - link