A Brief History of Canadian Political Philosophy

Canadian political philosophy may refer both to philosophical reflection on Canadian social and political issues, and contemplation on the Canadian political community. In this paper, I identify three distinct periods in the history of Canadian political philosophy. First, there is its pre-history, which can be found in the thought of Canada’s three founding pillars, the Indigenous, French, and British. The views developed in these contexts were connected to practice and informed by immediate concerns, like the administration of the law or development of an education system. The most comprehensive political philosophies developed in what is today Canada before Confederation were those of Indigenous philosophers. Second, there was the period between Confederation and the Second World War, when Canadian Idealism was the foremost philosophical system. Canadian Idealists backed a communitarian philosophy premised on the interdependence of the people in a society, and assigned the state the corresponding purpose of promoting the collective good. The post-war professionalization of the university ushered in a third period in Canadian political philosophy. In this globalized era, the work of many academics writing in Canada ceased to be informed by their national context and is indistinguishable from social and political philosophy developed elsewhere. Yet, some philosophers continued to reflect on Canada’s political community directly, or developed theories that respond to Canadian political issues, like separatism, multiculturalism, and decolonization. Throughout this paper, I describe the major themes and debates from each era while surveying the thinkers who contributed to those debates. I also argue that Canadian political philosophy is characterized by praxis: developments in Canadian political philosophy have historically been tied to reflection on concrete events and actions.