The Castrated Beaver

About the Book

"The Castrated Beaver" is a critical study of Canada by an American newspaper editor, E. W. Kieckhefer, who has traveled to that country regularly for the last 25 years to report on its political, economic and social conditions and its relations with the United States. The title derives from the testimony by Margaret Atwood before a parliamentary committee which was considering legislation for Canada to join the U.S. in a Free Trade Agreement. She referred to the ancient Bestiary, which describes the beaver as possessing testicles considered to have unusual medicinal value. Aware that it was being hunted for its parts, the beaver sought to preserve its life by biting off the desired member and making a gift of it to the hunter. That, Atwood said, makes the beaver the apt symbol for Canada because Canada always is willing to sacrifice its powers when pursued by U.S. government or business interests. Kieckhefer explains this concept of Canada which was shared by many Canadian nationalists, discussing Canada's long history of dependency upon first France, then Britain and more recently the U.S. He describes the process by which Canada allowed itself to become an economic colony of the U.S. and discusses the consequences of that for the future, which provides the grist for the book's subtitle, "The Reunification of North America." The origins of the Quebec separatist movement are explained in considerable detail, much of which Canadians outside Quebec either never have understood or perhaps simply refuse to understand. This includes the insistence on the part of Quebecois that they be able to protect the French language in what they consider to be their own nation within Canada and the bungled efforts of the Canadian federal government to accommodate Quebec's demand that it be recognized as "a distinct society." The book provides some insights to the Canadian Constitution with its quirks and contradictions and also the Canadian legal and court systems. That Constitution is described as a hodge-podge document and the governmental system as a difficult means of achieving the national unity which the author explains would be essential to achieve resolution of the seemingly never-ending Quebec problem. This book was written for several audiences. First, to help Americans understand Canada because increasingly the two nations are being bound together economically and inevitably in some form of political organization. Second, as a possible supplemental reading for Canadian Studies programs in U.S. schools and universities, providing some alternatives to the out-of-date Canadian histories which too often still are used in such programs. And finally, to provoke Canadians into understanding and admitting the need for changes in attitude on some of the basic Canadian issues.

About the Author

E.W. Kieckhefer has been a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist for 65 years. For the last 25 years he has traveled regularly to Canada to report and comment on political and economic developments there. His travels have taken him from Victoria to Halifax and from the U.S. border to Hudson Bay. He continues to write analyses of Canadian affairs for the United Press International.