McGill-Queen's University Press Blog

Globe and Mail review of Evan Potter's Branding Canada

Concerned about how the world looks at Canada? Could the country's governments be more media savvy? Does Canada need an image makeover after the Governor-General ate a raw seal heart? The Globe and Mail raises these issues in this review of Evan H. Potter's Branding Canada: Projecting Canada's Soft Power through Public Diplomacy.

The review points out Potter's argument that '[o]f all the instruments of public diplomacy, culture is the most self-defining and long-lasting. As Potter explains, “Cultural diversity, rather than being a barrier, is now a strategic resource that, in a global knowledge-based society, drives innovation, creativity and reconciliation.”' Considering the ongoing cuts to cultural programmes in Canada, it is worthwhile to think about the ways that Canada represents itself to the world beyond national-attention-getting $135 hockey sweaters. 

Speaking of Savoie...

A glowing review of Donald J Savoie's book, I'm From Bouctouche, Me, written by a fellow Acadian and Ottawa city councillor, appeared in the Monday edition of the Globe and Mail. To give you a taste, Clive Doucet writes

"The Acadians were the original “Yes we can” people, and Savoie's book is fired with this ebullient spirit. Savoie is tenacious and, in a quiet way, tough as old leather. So are Acadians. They have constantly sought to get along with others, but at the same time to maintain their own language and culture. Acadians built dikes, not walls, in the New World, and Savoie's own life is led in that community tradition of connecting and doing."

 For more information on Savoie, check out our last post, or his many books with MQUP!

Celebrating l'Acadie

 

Donald J Savoie on l'Acadie of New Brunswick, and the upcoming Acadian National Congress

 

Canadian history is wrought with the stories of groups of people who have survived hardship and discrimination, only to come out stronger and prouder after years of social justice struggles. One of Canada’s most interesting stories is that of the Acadians of Atlantic Canada. Beginning this week throughout New Brunswick’s Acadian peninsula is the Acadian World Congress (Congrès Mondial Acadien), which will celebrate Acadian culture and commemorate the events of the past.