“Citizenship and the Emergence of the Antigonish Movement in Maritime Canada”

Abstract

Canadians exited World War I with a new hope for their relationship with the state. After four years of government control and intervention in their lives, citizens demanded increased state involvement in their welfare, an expectation that became more pronounced during and following the Great Depression. Coupled with these increased demands on the state, there was a changed notion of citizenship that looked to increased protection by government of the basic social, political and legal rights of all citizens. Those new notions of citizenship and the role of the state helped to shape the Maritime co-operative movement that emerged most forcefully in the Antigonish Movement. The Antigonish Movement’s founders, Reverends James Tompkins and Moses Coady, were Catholic priests, educated at St. Francis Xavier University (STFX) but prior to becoming professors at STFX they each studied abroad. This thesis explores how state involvement in the lives of Canadian citizens after World War I, together with other developments in the early twentieth century, prompted people to rethink notions of citizenship and how the changing expectations of the state influenced the origins of the Antigonish Movement. Incensed by economic disparity, especially within the fishery sector, Tompkins and Coady were determined to empower people towards self-determinism. They chose STFX as the vehicle to channel their cause and adult education as their avenue. They brought education to the people via rural study groups instead of expecting people to come to the University. Even with its more robust role within citizens’ lives, the federal government realized it could not address all its citizens’ needs and it saw Coady as a bridge between government and the citizens of eastern Nova Scotia. As an agent of reform but not a unionist or a communist, he appealed to government within a capitalist system at a time when communism was beginning to gain strength. By examining this subject from a variety of sources, this thesis argues the origins of the Antigonish Movement were part of new emerging attitudes of Canadians towards citizenship and expectation of citizens towards the state of state-related institutions. In so doing, it moves the understanding of the Antigonish Movement away from a reliance on Catholic theology to new dimensions and considerations. The Antigonish Movement had its origins in changing notions of citizenship.