Review

As I write this review, the celebration of what used to be "Dominion Day " underscores the central thesis of all three volumes: Canada is an ongoing work-in-progress. On 1 July 2002, the focus is on Parliament Hill. The wonders of modern electronic commu-nication produce a collage of continent-wide images of people, places, and perfor-mance. As ever, it is an extravaganza of son et lumihe: music, illuminations, personalities, and rhetoric are all marshaled to the task of producing "a collective heart-beat " (Dayan and Kaa 1992). A century ago, the preoccupation with statues and staged history was, perhaps, a reaction to the perceived threats of urban and indus-trial modernity. Today, it's as if Canada and other nationalizing-states are redefining themselves in a world threatened by post-industrial and globalizing trends.' But, as the three volumes being reviewed here remind us, Canada has always strug-gled with this crisis of identity. Given its history of imperial origins, colonial expan-sion, and immigrant settlement, it cannot claim to be a primordial nation-state. Indeed, few, if any, can! Like most of the 200 or so political entities throughout the world, Canada has had to "construct " a sense of shared belonging and collective iden