SUMMARY OF A FAIR COUNTRY:
In this startlingly original vision of Canada, thinker John Ralston Saul unveils 3 founding myths. Saul argues that the famous “peace, order, and good government” that supposedly defines Canada is a distortion of the country’s true nature. Every single document before the BNA Act, he points out, used the phrase “peace, welfare, and good government,” demonstrating that the well-being of its citizenry was paramount.
He also argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas: egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. Another obstacle to progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn’t believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink its future.
RECENT REVIEWS >>>
29 January 2009: MJ Stone, Hour.ca
18-24 December: Alice Klein, NOW
6 November: Jim Creskey, Embassy
26 October: Jon Midgley, Calgary Herald
16 October: Doug Horner, The Gauntlet
11 October: Aparna Sanyal, Montreal Gazette
5 October: Lesley Hughes, Winnipeg Free Press
27 September: Noah Richler, Globe and Mail
18 September, Paul Gessell, Ottawa Citizen
RECENT INTERVIEWS:
16 October: Interview with Cormac Rea, Ottawa XPress
15 October: Interview with Joseph Planta on The Commentary
6 October issue: Interview with Kate Fillion in Maclean's
6 October: Inteview with Vivian Moreau in Victoria News
29 September: Interview with Michael Valpy, plus excerpt from A Fair Country, Globe and Mail
RECENT ARTICLES:
4 February 2009: Pascal Zamprelli, The McGill Reporter
27 January, 2009: Geoff Johnson, Times Colonist
3 January, 2009: Linda Diebel, Toronto Star
18 October: Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen
17 October: Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press
29 September: Op-Ed by John Ralston Saul, plus excerpt from A Fair Country, Ottawa Citizen
23 September: Andrew Cohen, Ottawa Citizen
21 September: Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star (Part 1 of 2) and 25 September (Part 2 of 2).
19 September: Editorial, Ottawa Citizen
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A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada
(Penguin, 2008)
- 1st on Maclean's bestseller list
- 2nd on Toronto Star's bestseller list
- One of the top non-fiction bestsellers of 2008 (Globe and Mail)
from the Globe and Mail's Personal Picks of 2008 :
JOSEPH BOYDEN:
"The jacket drawing of John Ralston Saul's A Fair Country is both simple and wonderfully complex. To anyone who recognizes the Anishnabek world view of Turtle Island, the illustration is a perfect summation of Saul's thesis. Canada is, indeed, a Métis nation. Saul's carefully constructed and illuminating argument offers us a new way of viewing ourselves, an argument with roots that stretch back centuries before Confederation. Our ties to the aboriginal, Saul argues, are far stronger than our ties to the European.
Clearly, this makes some more than a touch uncomfortable, even angry, which will certainly lead to good debate. And isn't that the point of a great book? There's no denying Saul is one of our nation's most lucid, commanding and progressive thinkers.
It's the rare book that offers its readers epiphanies that are at once startling and obvious. These Aha! moments are to be cherished. A Fair Country will change the way we view ourselves as a nation."
MICHAEL ADAMS:
"John Ralston Saul's A Fair Country is an intellectually engaging effort to reframe our view of the relationship between aboriginal peoples and Canadians who have arrived (or been born to migrants) over the past four centuries. Saul's reading of history suggests that a more respectful, even egalitarian relationship existed between aboriginal peoples and European newcomers during the first couple of centuries before the period of de facto cultural genocide from which we are now only haltingly emerging.
Being a pollster, I naturally surveyed the opinions of my First Nations, Métis and Inuit colleagues, and found unanimity among them that this book intrigued them, and did not, as I had feared, give unintentional offence with its provocative declaration that "We are a Métis civilization."
Aboriginal peoples are one of Canada's most rapidly growing demographic groups. Now at 1.2 million, they are close to the numbers estimated to have been here when Jacques Cartier first set foot on this land. An even larger number of us (1.8 million) claim aboriginal ancestry and both these numbers have been growing in recent censuses more rapidly than new births, suggesting that we are in fact witnessing a renaissance of aboriginal identity in this country - an emerging spirit that Saul is sensing. His book's quickly achieving bestseller status also suggests he is tapping into an inchoate sense among non-aboriginal Canadians that we should be rethinking the stereotypes we learned in the history books of our youth and that are reinforced every few months by the relentless bad-news stories in the media. Maybe - maybe - Saul has begun the dialogue that will create a powerful new national narrative (the Greeks called it mythos) to reframe this relationship from one of ignorance and racism to that of equality and respect."
OTHER PRAISE FOR A FAIR COUNTRY:
"A brilliant and timely argument about Canada's complex nature and our country's best future course. What a relief it is to read something so observant about Canada...Our politicians would do well to read this book."
- Noah Richler, Globe and Mail
"A consequence of Saul's vision is that Western Canada assumes greater influence in the Canadian story."
- Jon Midgley, Calgary Herald
"He suggests a new and believable understanding of how Canada has come to be what it is. A Fair Country has the potential to change the way Canadians see themselves forever. It offers a romantic and heroic vision, and it's a stirring and unpretentious read."
- Lesley Hughes, Winnipeg Free Press
"A Fair Country is that rare work of political thought that, by virtue of its daring, is both thrilling and sobering. One reads it with the even rarer sense that it had to be written."
- Aparna Sanyal, Montreal Gazette
"Any Canadian reading the book, or learning about its content, will think of Canada differently."
- Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star
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