Building the Nation of Canada – Part 2: Identity, Rights and Reconciliation

October 10, 2025

As Canada’s physical foundations solidified in the first half of the twentieth century, its leaders turned to questions of principle and identity. Nation building came to mean strengthening the social fabric, through rights, inclusion, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and recognition of diversity. From Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights to contemporary reconciliation initiatives, this stage of Canada’s evolution has been about defining what it means to live together as Canadians.

Part 2 of the two-part series on nation-building looks at the nation-building journey in Canada from the 1960s to the present. It underlines the importance of viewing the challenges we face today in the long-view, recognizing the ever-present and ever-changing concept of nationhood and the constant need to advocate for the society we want to be.

St Laurent’s successor, John Diefenbaker (1957-63), is remembered for presiding over tumultuous times. His cancellation of the Avro Arrow project, initiated under St Laurent, is considered a significant blow to Canada’s aeronautical industry and as such a kind of anti-infrastructure initiative. But Diefenbaker may also be credited with uniting the West into a national political force and giving greater attention to both Atlantic Canada and the North, and his prairie populism altered Canadian conservatism. One of the last national leaders to hold to symbols of Canada’s British heritage, he also opposed Canada’s perceived drift into the US orbit. A great believer in human rights, he gave Canada its first Bill of Rights in 1960, a precursor to Pierre Trudeau’s more transformative Charter decades later.

Diefenbaker’s successor, Lester Pearson (1963-68), did much to complete the core elements of Canada’s social policy framework, including the CPP and the national medicare system that has become central to Canadian identity. Pearson’s vision for UN peacekeeping also became identity defining for Canada, as did the Canadian flag that his government adopted in 1965 over the impassioned opposition of John Diefenbaker.

Like Pearson, Pierre Trudeau (1968-79; 1980-84) may be considered a social progressive but predominantly a values building prime minister. His legacy in this respect was enormous, ranging from modernized social and criminal justice policies to bilingualism, multi-culturalism, and above all a “patriated” constitution with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter became part of Canadian identity and, with the help of active jurisprudence, altered Canadian society in ways that Trudeau himself probably did not foresee. The Constitution Act 1982 included the landmark Section 35, obliging the Crown to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate Indigenous groups when government actions might affect their rights, which has greatly altered the position of Indigenous people in Canada.

While Brian Mulroney (1984-93) is not primarily associated with large physical infrastructure projects like the Canadian National Railway or TransCanada Highway, his policy legacy was in many ways the machinery for a much-altered Canada. From the GST and other tax reforms, to privatization, regional development, and above all the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, he fundamentally altered the orientation of the Canadian economy. While these are not typically seen as “values” initiatives, they in fact reflected new ways of thinking about Canada and its single most important international relationship. Mulroney also implemented other, perhaps more obviously values oriented measures, including multiple environmental initiatives, opposition to apartheid, and compensation to Japanese Canadians interned during the Second World War. His signature efforts to bring Quebec into the Canadian constitution did not succeed, but the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (1993) laid the groundwork for the creation of the territory of Nunavut in 1999.

Jean Chrétien (1993-2003) is primarily remembered as a sound and successful manager of Canada’s economy and government finances, with significant support from his Finance Minister and eventual successor Paul Martin (2003-06). Through spending cuts and fiscal reform they delivered Canada’s first budget surplus in nearly three decades, which endured throughout the rest of their respective terms and helped to finance social initiatives like enhancement of the Child Tax Benefit and institutions to promote research, such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Genome Canada. Chrétien could be said to have embodied a range of pragmatic Canadian values rather than to have led them in new directions. He signed the original NAFTA agreement in 1994 but famously declined to join the US forces in Iraq a decade later.

Stephen Harper (2006-2015) may also be regarded as predominantly a successful manager, though somewhat ironically he oversaw a return to deficit spending in response to the international financial crisis of 2008. Although he was a strong supporter of the energy sector and international trade, Harper did not preside over major pipeline construction. In terms of values, his signature legislation was the Federal Accountability Act, which sought to make government more accountable by keeping officials in check, although he also introduced tough-on-crime legislation and apologized for Residential Schools and the Chinese Head Tax. Like his predecessor, Harper took a practical approach to issues of national unity, successfully avoiding flashpoints on Quebec succession while also bringing Western perspectives into the heart of his government.

In sharp contrast to his immediate predecessors, Justin Trudeau (2025-25) was very much a values focused leader. His signature initiative in this regard was Reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples, but he also aggressively fostered Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and a strongly environmentalist climate change policy. His economic policy and values orientation were arguably conjoined in his significant increase in immigration.

Viewed across six decades, these prime ministers show that Canada’s identity has never been static. It has been shaped by the balance each leader sought between vision and restraint, unity and diversity, independence and interdependence. From the first Bill of Rights to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and through to modern commitments to reconciliation and inclusion, successive governments have translated changing values into national direction. The result is a Canada that continues to define itself not only through institutions and policies, but through the principles it chooses to uphold. The story of its leaders is, in that sense, the story of the country itself, one still being written, shaped by the ongoing efforts to chart the country’s course in a changing world.

In this light, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for renewed nation-building can be seen as part of this longer continuum: a reassertion of Canadian sovereignty, a rebalancing of federal-provincial-territorial relationships, and a re-alignment of Canada’s international partnerships to create a more self-reliant and purpose-driven role at the global level. His vision echoes earlier moments when national leadership sought to redefine Canada’s place in the world, its internal relationships at home, and its identity as a modern, diverse country.