True Patriot Love

Michael Ignatieff, leader of Canada's Liberal Party and a candidate for Prime Minister whenever the next elections are held, obviously hopes this book will be his version of Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. It doesn't quite make it, perhaps because nothing in Canadian political life approaches the emotive drama of race and the role it plays in the United States. Still, it's an intriguing and compelling book, even for someone who isn't Canadian. First of all, Ignatieff knows what he's talking about when he opines on nationalism in the opening and closing sections of the book, which bracket three biographical sketches of his maternal ancestors, members of the Grant family. He's seen the ugly side of nationalism in the Balkans, and has written some interesting and thoughtful books on the subject, such as Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism. None of his comments here are tremendously revelatory from a scholarly or news perspective, however; it's pretty much standard fare to describe Canada as poised between an economic and a historic/cultural fact; ties to the US competing with ties to the now-defunct British Empire. The challenge is in forging an identity that doesn't rely on absolute rejection or an absolute embrace of either, but is distinctively Canadian. Not surprisingly, Ignatieff is better at highlighting the questions than on providing answers, but that still leaves this as an interesting and occasionally thought-provoking book Still, what is here in the biographical sections turns out to be more insightful than I had imagined. George Munro Grant played a key role in helping to forge east-west ties that might unite Canada by traveling across Canada (by steamer, canoe and horseback) shortly after Confederation in the 1870s, clearing the way for the construction of the trans-Canada railway. His son, William, went on to be a big supporter of the Empire and Canada's role within it, only to emerge as a champion of a strong Canada with an independent voice in the wake of the First World War. William's son -- and Ignatieff's uncle -- George Grant, became a key public intellectual during the 1960s, when debates over Canada's ties to the United States reached fever pitch. Was Canada nothing more than a branch plant economy and political satellite? In "Lament of a Nation", Grant answered yes, firmly. The third segment is the least successful, perhaps because shadows of a family rift between George and his sister, Ignatieff's mother, hang over it in ways that make Ignatieff visibly uncomfortable discussing it. It's also still an emotive issue within Canada in the wake of the war with Afghanistan, and Ignatieff's reaction to it has to take into consideration the fact that he could become Canada's political leader, in a position where his words will come back to haunt him as he tries to forge a working relationship with the United States -- a country over which Canada has far less influence tha