The Reform Party's re-imagining of the Canadian nation

Accepting that national political communities are continually (re)invented through political and ideological struggle, this paper examines the way in which the Reform Party of Canada has brought its New Right populist discourse to three nation-defining areas of public policy: (i) bilingualism and the status of Quebec within Canadian federalism; (ii) multiculturalism and immigration; and (iii) Aboriginal self-governance. With reference to theoretically driven interpretations of how 'the politics of cultural recognition' challenges the ideal of 'universal citizenship', it is argued that Reform's vision of Canada is based on an exclusionary discourse which would limit the political and cultural capacities of Quebecois nationalists, ethnocultural minorities and Aboriginal peoples who are struggling to define the Canadian political community in a manner that allows them to assert their collective identities and pursue particular destinies.