Review: At Home in the World
| Author | Reg Whitaker |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000224 |
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
AT
HOME
IN THE
WORLD
Canada's
Global
Vision
for
the 21st
Century
Jennifer
Welsh
Toronto:
HarperCollins Canada, 2004.
266pp.
$32.95 cloth
(ISBN
0-00-
200665-0)
Jennifer
Welsh has already made quite a splash with this revisionist look at
Canadian foreign policy for the new century. Not since Andrew Cohen's
While
Canada
Slept
has a book on Canadian foreign policy made a signifi-
cant
impression not only in academic
circles
but in the wider reading pub-
lic.
But Cohen's vision is a nostalgic lament for a lost golden age of the past
and for how far we have fallen, while Welsh's voice is new, forward-looking,
and refreshingly confident. Hers is a voice
of
a
younger generation of
schol-
ars,
impatient with traditional categories that seemingly no longer fit reali-
ty
and with those established scholars who conclude that when their cate-
gories
no longer fit, there is something wrong with reality. It is about time.
Welsh
begins with a personal disclosure that she is young, female, and
of
mixed Métis and white ancestry. Although readers' alarm bells may
sound at this point, this is not for the purpose of raising yet another com-
plaint of discrimination and a demand for redress. Instead it is simply her
way of indicating that she represents a new generation, not only younger
but more diverse in origin than the generation she is challenging. Her point
is
not that special treatment is needed but rather that this very diversity is a
valuable
resource for Canada in the new multicultural, globalized world.
She
reinforces this point by opening each chapter with an introduction of a
younger Canadian—whether in government, an NGO, or the private
sec-
tor—who has made a difference. These are Canadians who, by virtue of
their
very youth and diversity, are "at home in the world" and do not worry
about having lost their place.
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