Military frames and Canada's Conservative government: from extending to transforming perceptions of Canadian identity

This article looks at framing strategies behind the recent Canadian Conservative government's rhetoric on the military. Critics argue that Conservative rhetoric has politicised Canadian history and overemphasised the armed forces. Few scholars, however, have looked at the specific forms this rh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCommonwealth & comparative politics Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 288 - 311
Main Authors Desrosiers, Marie-Eve, Lagassé, Philippe
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.07.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Armed forces
Canada
Canadian history
Conservatism
Conservative
Frame analysis
framing
government
Identity
Intellectuals
military
National identity
partisan politics
Perceptions
Rhetoric
Transformation
Canada
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Summary:This article looks at framing strategies behind the recent Canadian Conservative government's rhetoric on the military. Critics argue that Conservative rhetoric has politicised Canadian history and overemphasised the armed forces. Few scholars, however, have looked at the specific forms this rhetoric took and the strategies it suggested. The article presents the results of a systematic analysis of Conservative rhetoric between 2005 and 2015. It argues that three key frame alignment strategies were at the heart of the Conservative Government's rhetoric: extension, consolidation and transformation, with truly transformative rhetoric transpiring only in the last phase. While agreeing with critics that this emphasis on the military aimed to alter perceptions of Canadian identity, the article shows that Conservative rhetoric was far from and monolithic.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:1466-2043
1743-9094
DOI:10.1080/14662043.2016.1175691