By Graeme Murdoch
The Scots are history’s underdogs. Sir Walter Scott wrote: “I am a Scotsman; therefore I had to fight my way into the world.”
Canada is often referred to as Scotland’s own colony – mainly by Scots and Scots Canadians – yet, because of the Scots’ largely classless, egalitarian view of the world those who invented Canada welcomed diversity and multiculturalism.
Scotland’s own Alex Salmond – like Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), who in 1885 drove the last spike of the transcontinental railway – is a man of Scotland’s north-east, and knows well the pioneering influence of the Scots in forging the Canadian nation.
"In How the Scots invented Canada," the first minister says, "Ken McGoogan has delivered a celebration of the inextricable and treasured ties between our two great nations. His insightful and intelligent portrayal of our shared heritage surely draws its inspiration from the many Scots who have led the way in shaping Canada, from early settlers who carved Nova Scotia from harsh northern lands to Glasgow-born Sir John A Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, who united Canada with his national vision and the construction of the world's longest railway.
"In the intimate portrayals of Scots–Canadians past we see the enduring strengths and qualities which have helped make our countries great today. In our world-class education systems, thriving creative industries and cutting-edge technology, we see Scots on both sides of the Atlantic as diverse, radical and passionate as the first explorers who set foot on Canada's shores hundreds of years ago."
Anyone in Canada with a drop of Scottish blood will tell you there is something seductive about being descended from the Scots. It’s not the romanticised auld homeland that’s irresistible as much as the diaspora itself. From the 18th century to the 20th, inured to hardship but disdainful of oppression, armed to an exceptional degree with education and a belief in social equality, the Scots burst the confines of their northern country, once the poorest in Europe, to populate the world with explorers and entrepreneurs, warriors and politicians, inventors and educators – in short, leaders.
McGoogan, a Scottish-French-German-Irish-Danish Canadian with deep roots in Canada, is the author of four books on Arctic exploration, including an important tribute to Orcadian John Rae who explored northern Canada and the Northwest Passage. In this latest book, he isn’t writing about tiresome tartan chauvinism but the undeniable fact that, in so many ways, Scots created the nation he lives in today.
In the late 1700s and 1800s, Scots emigrated to Canada in great numbers. Yet the 2006 Census of Canada states that there are only 4,720,015 Canadians with Scots ancestry – a tally “generally considered an underestimate,” according to McGoogan. Many of the newly arrived Scots in the British colony were products of the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment principles of egalitarianism, democratic values and universal access to higher education.
“Never have the Scots," he writes, "even broadly defined, exceeded 16 per cent of the Canadian population (41 per cent of those living on Prince Edward Island claim Scottish descent). Yet no matter how you approach the history of Canada – through exploration, politics, business, education, or literature – you find them playing a leading role. Of Canada’s 22 prime ministers, for example, 13 are of Scottish heritage.”
In How the Scots invented Canada, McGoogan portrays profiles of Canada’s most famous – and infamous – Scots, from the earliest days to the present.
He splits his book into three sections and engages his audience through 19 chapters and dozens of memorable mini-biographies.
● “The Pioneers” showcases such explorers as Simon Fraser, Alexander Mackenzie and John Rae.
● “The Builders” delves into such lives as Upper Canada rebellion leader William Lyon Mackenzie, suffragette Nellie McClung and inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
● “The Visionaries” brings us up to the territory of such modern Scots as Norman “A Presbyterian Red” Bethune, former Chatelaine editor and scrappy politician Doris Anderson, Marshall “The Medium is the Message” McLuhan and Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
On a recent flight back to Glasgow with McGoogan’s book and a bottle of an Ontarian red to while away the night hours, I learnt that Sir John A Macdonald from Glasgow, Canada’s first premier, not only cajoled the British North American colonies into confederation, but established a form of governance and defined it during his 19 years in power. (The constitution Macdonald wrote has evolved over the ensuing 142 years under such leaders as Mackenzie King, kilt-loving John George Diefenbaker and Pierre Elliott Trudeau – all of Scottish descent, the last two on their mothers’ side).
I read about Ken McGoogan’s wife Sheena’s grandfather William Fraser, who designed the Burns monument at Mauchline in Ayrshire and later civic buildings in Canada. How Alexander Mackenzie from Lewis became the first European explorer to cross North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And, how Trudeau enshrined Canadian pluralism into law in 1971 with official multiculturalism and a decade later with a constitution which finally freed Canadians from the British North America Act – certainly an influence of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Finally, according to a national poll run in 2004 by CBC, I am reminded of Tommy Douglas from Falkirk who was voted the greatest Canadian of all time. Douglas, father of Shirley, and actor Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather, was the maker of Medicare. Not a lot of people in Falkirk know that, but nearly every Scots Canadian I have met in six visits to the country since 2008 does.
Thank you, Mr McGoogan, for an enlightening flight.
– Beautifully illustrated and handsomely packaged, How the Scots invented Canada is an exuberant celebration of the building of a nation, now available in softback edition. Published by HarperCollins Canada, it is not yet available in the UK except from Amazon.
– See also Scots Who Found the Modern World: Canada, on BBC2 Scotland this evening, 9pm.
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