Canadian Paradigms

As a continuation from classes in our second week, we discussed many of the functionalist theorists. We were also briefly introduced to three Canadian paradigms of functionalism. Unfortunately like many other Canadian aspects, theorists and ideologies, they are often pushed away and not given any proper recognition. With a class of about 30-40 people, some of whom had taken previous sociology classes, only 2-3 people had heard of these theorists. We discussed Harold Adams Innis, Marshal McLuhan, and George Grant. These were three professors (George Grant was a student of the first two) who never got the students that they deserved simply because they were Canadian. Anyone who was seen as a good theorist of functionalism was taken to schools such as Harvard. As these Canadians have been put aside, I would like to write a bit about each of them to show the work that they created.

Firstly, Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952) was a Canadian professor at the University of Toronto and was the author of many works on media and economic history. He was originally influenced by James Ten Broeke, a philosopher at McMaster University. Harold was enlisted in the war where he was sent to France in 1916 to fight in the First World War. As his interests widened, he wrote a novel called The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History. The book discusses the trade in beaver fur. He believed that the fur trade largely determined Canada's boundaries. He noted that it was not because of Geography that made Canada; rather he interpreted the importance of the fur trade.

Second, Marshal McLuhan was a Canadian English professor. He was known for being very enticed to the study of media theory. His most important piece of writing was published in 1951 titled The Mechanical Bride. He discusses the persuasions that come along with popular culture and how people are influenced by it. In the fifties, he also predicted and explained his theory about the internet. His saying was always that “the medium is the message” when he was trying to explain the internet.

Lastly, George Grant (1918-1988) was a Canadian philosopher, and teacher. He is considered one of Canada’s most original thinkers. The amount of information on George was the least out of the three, which shows more how much these individuals were not properly appreciated. He is the student of both of the teachers above. Similar to Marshal McLuhan, he was also interested in the media. The most notable thing that he was known for is the Red Toryism.

I am sure that I could go on forever about all of the things that each of them accomplished, but that would take forever, as I would probably end up writing a whole book. Looking through all of the novels that they wrote and their life stories about growing up, education, etc, they definitely did accomplish a lot. It is sad to see that a lot of their stuff was not produced or recognized because they were Canadian.

It really bothers me that people do not appreciate some of the work that is accomplished by Canadians. There are even some Canadians who feel ashamed when they find out that something is Canadian. For example, movies, authors, etc. One thing that really bothers me at the moment is that I am in a class right now that is taught by an American professor. Whenever she brings up statistics, facts, etc, it always is related to the U.S.

(Much of the information that was given here was off of Wikipedia. Check out their pages on Wikipedia to find out even more interesting information.)