Good Canadians in every sense, the Citizenship Council of Manitoba, 1948-1975

Abstract

This thesis seeks to understand what citizenship has meant within the everyday lives of Canadians by tracing the growth and evolution of the Citizenship Council of Manitoba between 1948 and 1975. By looking at the Council within this period it is possible to examine how two pieces of government policy--the Citizenship Act of 1947 and the Multiculturalism policy of 1971--were given meaning within a local community organization. The issues of gender, religion and class were central to the Citizenship Council's identity as a group, influencing how it understood citizenship and how it related to immigrants. By assuming greater leadership of the organization within this period, women were instrumental in bringing about more direct immigrant participation. As the group became less overtly Christian during this period its rhetoric became less religious and more political in nature. The Citizenship Council's class identity evolved as well, and by the 1970s its membership and leadership reflected greater ethnic and social diversity, thereby portraying a broader interpretation of what it meant to belong as a "good" Canadian citizen. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)