Donald Creighton
Encyclopedia
Donald Grant Creighton, (July 15, 1902 – December 19, 1979) was a noted Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

.

Background

Born in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, the son of Methodist minister, Creighton attended Victoria College
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Victoria University is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1836 and named for Queen Victoria. It is commonly called Victoria College, informally Vic, after the original academic component that now forms its undergraduate division...

, in the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

, where he received his BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1925. He then attended Balliol College at Oxford University, where he received his MA
Master of Arts (Oxbridge)
In the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts of these universities are admitted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university .There is no examination or study required for the degree...

 before returning to Canada to teach history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

, where he remained for his career. Creighton belonged to a generation of English Canadians who were proud of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

, and his anglophilia
Anglophilia
An Anglophile is a person who is fond of English culture or, more broadly, British culture. Its antonym is Anglophobe.-Definition:The word comes from Latin Anglus "English" via French, and is ultimately derived from Old English Englisc "English" + Ancient Greek φίλος - philos, "friend"...

 was often expressed in his books. In 1926, Creighton married Luella Bruce. He was the father of the fiction writer Cynthia Flood
Cynthia Flood
Cynthia Flood is a Canadian short-story writer and novelist. The daughter of novelist Luella Creighton and historian Donald Creighton, she grew up in Toronto...

. Creighton died in his sleep on December 18, 1979, from cancer, in Brooklin, Ontario
Brooklin, Ontario
Brooklin is a community in the Town of Whitby, Ontario, Canada. It is located,North of the urban area of Whitby,at the South junction of Ontario Highways 12 and 7....

. He was 77.

In 1967, Creighton was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

.

University of New Brunswick
University of New Brunswick
The University of New Brunswick is a Canadian university located in the province of New Brunswick. UNB is the oldest English language university in Canada and among the first public universities in North America. The university has two main campuses: the original campus founded in 1785 in...

 political science professor Donald A. Wright is writing a biography about Creighton.

Creighton as an historian

Creighton was heavily influenced by Harold Innis
Harold Innis
Harold Adams Innis was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. The affiliated Innis College at the University of Toronto is named for him...

 and took an economic approach to Canadian history. His significant contribution to the field was the development of the Laurentian Thesis, which described the basis of Canadian history through geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

 and the nation's dependence on its major centres. Creighton's first works were studies in the Rebellion of 1837-38 in Lower Canada, which Creighton believed to the product of the clash between the economic traditionalism of French Canada and the relentless drive of the Anglo business elite of Montreal. In turn, this led Creighton to the study of that elite, and hence into the study of the St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...

 in Canadian history. In The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence, Creighton argued that the economic potential of the St. Lawrence system inspired successive generations of adventurers, explorers and businessmen to try to link the vast natural resources of the interior of North America with Europe. Despite heroic efforts, the dream of the St. Lawrence failed to come to life as too many impenetrable portions of the river meant it could not live up to its potential, and the development of the railroad system in the U.S. proved to be more economical. Creighton was well-known for arguing that the "natural" basis of trade in Canada ran east-west rather than north-south. In Creighton's view, the failure of commercial elites to properly develop the St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...

 is what led to Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

. Creighton argued that since impassable waterfalls and rapids prevented an economic empire from being built, Canadian elites embraced a political empire, namely Confederation as a consolation prize. The theme of Confederation as a poor substitute for an economic empire was underlined in The Road To Confederation and Creighton's biography of Macdonald.

Creighton's two most important works are The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence (1937) and his two volume biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

 of Sir John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...

 entitled the Young Politician and the Old Chieftain. Creighton's biography of Macdonald is often considered to be an excellent example of idealist history as developed by R. G. Collingwood
R. G. Collingwood
Robin George Collingwood was a British philosopher and historian. He was born at Cartmel, Grange-over-Sands in Lancashire, the son of the academic W. G. Collingwood, and was educated at Rugby School and at University College, Oxford, where he read Greats...

, who was a major influence on Creighton. Both volumes won the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...

 for Best Non-fiction book in 1952 and 1955, were major best-sellers, and were credited with creating a major reassessment of Macdonald's role in Canadian history. In Creighton's view, Macdonald sought Confederation as way of bringing to life the political St. Lawrence empire.

Creighton saw history as a literary art, and rejected calls for history to be seen as social science. Creighton was famous for spending as much time crafting his prose as he did in research, and Creighton often claimed that the best historical work should read like a well-written novel. Creighton disliked what he called "fat funereal volumes" of unreadable biographies, and argued that well-written books should be the historian's objective. Besides Collingwood, Creighton’s major influences were James Anthony Froude
James Anthony Froude
James Anthony Froude , 23 April 1818–20 October 1894, was an English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of Fraser's Magazine. From his upbringing amidst the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Froude intended to become a clergyman, but doubts about the doctrines of the Anglican church,...

, G.M. Trevelyan, Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...

, and A. J. P. Taylor
A. J. P. Taylor
Alan John Percivale Taylor, FBA was a British historian of the 20th century and renowned academic who became well known to millions through his popular television lectures.-Early life:...

.

Creighton's vision of Canadian history
History of Canada
The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive groups of Aboriginal peoples, among whom evolved trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and social hierarchies...

 was ultimately a deeply pessimistic and tragic one as he felt Canada had the potential to be the world’s greatest country if only Canadians would follow the vision of the Fathers of Confederation, especially Macdonald's. In his view, most Canadian leaders had sadly chosen to neglect that vision and had instead allowed Canada’s potential to needlessly squandered. The only leaders who merited the description of statesmen were Macdonald and Borden. According to Creighton, Macdonald’s time in office was Canada’s Golden Age and without the exception of Borden every leader who came after Macdonald had allowed Canada to deteriorate. Thus for Creighton, Canadian history after 1891 was for the most part the story of missed opportunities, thwarted ambition, and hopes scattered as the dream that was Canada was slowly allowed to unravel.

Through Creighton normally tried to maintain a formal and cold pose, he was well-known for his outspoken and passionate nature. His eruptions of rage led his publisher John Gray to call him "the terrible-tempered Mr. Bang". Creighton often engaged in feuds with historians whose interpretations he disliked, but he was well-known as a kind-hearted and munificent professor towards his students, albeit one who was severe with those who engaged in work that Creighton thought was wrong-headed. He made no effort at objectivity and was openly subjective and partisan in regards to his likes and dislikes. Creighton was fond of contrasting Canada’s participation in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In Creighton’s view, Sir Robert Borden
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...

 was a tough and able leader who, despite initial mistakes and missteps, was able to fully mobilize Canada and ensure that Canada contributed disproportionately to the Allied victory in 1918. Borden took the necessary steps to win the war despite the unpopularity of many of his measures. Creighton saw the rest of Canadian history as one long slide, which he largely blamed on the Liberal Party. In contrast, Creighton saw William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

 as a weak and indecisive figure who was more concerned with safeguarding the electoral fortunes of the Liberals then winning the war, and who kept Canadian troops out of combat as long as possible to avoid making difficult decisions on conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

. In Creighton’s opinion, thanks to Mackenzie King, Canada did not play as a large share as possible in the Allied victory.

Creighton was regarded by many as the foremost historian of his day and his influence is still strongly felt. An excellent writer and story-teller, his books commanded wide public attention. Many of Canada's top historians studied under Creighton, such as Ramsay Cook and Michael Bliss
Michael Bliss
John William Michael Bliss, CM, FRSC is a Canadian historian and award-winning author. Though his early works focused on business and political history, he has written several important medical biographies, including of Sir William Osler...

. Creighton's view of Canadian history is still often studied. He helped initiate The Canadian Centenary Series
The Canadian Centenary Series
The Canadian Centenary Series is a nineteen volume authoritative history of Canada published between 1963 and 1986 as an extended Canadian Centennial project. The collection resulted from the initiative of W. L. Morton and D. G. Creighton....

,
a nineteen volume history of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and served as its advisory editor. His book, The Forked Road: Canada, 1939-1957, was part of The Canadian Centenary Series
The Canadian Centenary Series
The Canadian Centenary Series is a nineteen volume authoritative history of Canada published between 1963 and 1986 as an extended Canadian Centennial project. The collection resulted from the initiative of W. L. Morton and D. G. Creighton....

.

Creighton as a nationalist

In later years, Creighton frequently expressed himself through the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

. An intense Canadian nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, his opinions have often been criticized, particularly by those, such as historian Susan Mann
Susan Mann
Susan Mann Trofimenkoff, CM, FRSC is a Canadian historian and was president of York University from 1992 to 1997.Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Mann received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963 from the University of Toronto, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1965, a Ph.D....

, who saw Creighton as anti-Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. Creighton felt that the position of the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 in Canada should be more or less what the British North America Act had prescribed. As such, Creighton was not enamored with changes such as official bilingualism
Bilingualism in Canada
The official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...

 that was introduced in the 1960s and 1970s. A strong supporter of the Progressive Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 and small "c" conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

, Creighton's heroes were Macdonald, Robert Borden, and John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

, for whom Creighton served as a speech writer. Likewise, Creighton was proud of Canada's British past, and regarded efforts to erase that past as a national disgrace. In his later years, Creighton moved towards the left and he was regarded as an Red Tory
Red Tory
A red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...

 by the time of his death.

Creighton detested the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 as he saw the Liberals as the party of continentalism
Continentalism
Continentalism refers to the agreements or policies that favor the regionalization and/or cooperation between nations within a continent. The term is used more often in the European and North American contexts, but the concept has been applied to other continents including Australia, Africa and...

 (i.e. moving Canada closer to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

) and for taking steps that Creighton saw as an attack on Canada's British heritage, such as replacing the Canadian Red Ensign
Canadian Red Ensign
The Canadian Red Ensign is the former flag of Canada, used by the federal government though it was never adopted as official by the Parliament of Canada. It is a British Red Ensign, featuring the Union Flag in the canton, defaced with the shield of the Coat of Arms of Canada.-History:The Red Ensign...

 with the Maple Leaf
Flag of Canada
The national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...

 flag
Flag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...

 in 1965. Of the all the Liberal leaders, it was Lester Pearson who Creighton disliked the most. In regard to federal-provincial relations, Creighton shared Macdonald’s view of a highly centralized confederation
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...

 with the province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

s subservient to the federal government. In Creighton’s opinion, it had been a great mistake on Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

’s part to allow the growth of provincial powers in the 20th century. In particular, Creighton was strongly opposed to the demands made by the Quebec government for more power at the expense of the federal government during the Quiet Revolution
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...

 and afterwards. Creighton saw this as the first steps towards separatism
Quebec sovereignty movement
The Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...

.

Creighton's determination to maintain British traditions, his close association with Diefenbaker, and his dislike of continentalism led him to be accused of anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...

. Later, Creighton cemented his reputation for anti-American views with his only novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

, 1978's The Take-Over. As its title implies, the book dealt with an imaginary U.S. take-over of Canada. Creighton saw himself as a lonely crusader not only against what he called the "Authorized Version" of Canadian history (i.e., the Liberal interpretation), but also against what he regarded as the widespread indifference and apathy felt by most Canadians towards their history. In Creighton's view, the so-called "Liberal Interpretation" of Canadian history would ultimately led to Canada being absorbed into the United States. Creighton frequently proclaimed his belief that a people who forget their past are also doomed not to have a future. Throughout his life, Creighton struggled hard to raise the profile of history in Canadian life, and to convince Canadians that they had a grand and glorious history worth celebrating.

Works

  • The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence, 1760-1850, 1937.
  • Dominion of the North: A History of Canada, 1944.
  • John A. Macdonald, 2 volumes, 1952-1955.
  • Harold Adams Inis: Portrait of a Scholar, 1957.
  • The Road to Confederation: The Emergence of Canada, 1863-1867, 1964.
  • "Myth of Biculturalism or the Great French Canadian Sales Campaign" pages 35–40 from Saturday Night , September 1966.
  • Confederation : Essays, 1967
  • Canada's First Century, 1867-1967, 1970.
  • The Story of Canada, 1971.
  • Towards the Discovery of Canada: Selected Essays, 1972.
  • Canada, the Heroic Beginnings, 1974
  • The Forked Road: Canada, 1939-57, 1976.
  • The Passionate Observer: Selected Writings, 1980.

External links

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