Canada: Nation or Notion?
Date Recorded: Mar 28th, 2008
Recorded At: Convocation Hall, University of Toronto
Recorded By: Greg Fleet and Dave Field, CBC Ideas
Duration: 59:15
Topic Background
*PLEASE NOTE* For copyright reasons this programme will only be available for download and streaming during the month of April, 2009.
This edition of Canadian Voices features a lively debate, presented by Maclean’s Magazine, by ex-pat Canadians Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik.
In speaking about the colleagues’ respective approaches to the issue of Canadian identity, Adam Gopnik points out that the two writers address the question from entirely different perspectives: Gopnik from a sentimental and symbolic stance, and Gladwell from a more empirical, policy-related one. What both writers agree upon, however, is that Canada means far more in the international community than we give ourselves credit for.
CBC radio recorded the event for broadcast on its April 17, 2008 Ideas programme. Andrew Coyne, national Editor of Maclean’s Magazine, moderated the debate.
Speaker Biography
Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with the New Yorker Magazine since 1996. In 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. He is the author of three books, “The Tipping Point” (2000), “Blink” ( 2005) and “Outliers: The Story of Success” all of which have been number one New York Times bestsellers.
He graduated from the university of Toronto with a degree in history. He was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in New York City.
Adam Gopnik is also a staff writer at The New Yorker, and best-selling author of “Paris To The Moon” and “Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York”, Gopnik has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction and humour pieces, book reviews, Profiles, and more than a hundred stories for The Talk of the Town and Comment. Gopnik became The New Yorker’s art critic in 1987. He also lives in New York.