‘I AM CANADIAN’ – OR NOT
March 31, 2024
Canadian citizenship, as both an institution and set of normative values, underwent multiple changes since its formal implementation in 1947 (Winter and Madularea 2018). In this paper, we argue that the past sixty years of changes are best understood as a tale of increasing (neo-)liberalization with the liberalization of citizenship starting in the mid-1960s under Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau (père), and the neoliberalization of Canadian citizenship beginning in the 1990s and continuing under Canada’s current Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (fils) until the present day.
Canadian citizenship, as both an institution and set of normative values, underwent multiple changes since its formal implementation in 1947 (Winter and Madularea 2018). In this paper, we argue that the past sixty years of changes are best understood as a tale of increasing (neo-)liberalization with the liberalization of citizenship starting in the mid-1960s under Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau (père), and the neoliberalization of Canadian citizenship beginning in the 1990s and continuing under Canada’s current Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (fils) until the present day.