The Last Best West: A Canadian Myth of Success
The Last Best West: A Canadian Myth of Success

Summary/Abstract: This paper demonstrates how social myths play an important role in creating the collective imagination and provides a more detailed look at the Canadian frontier myth. At the turn of the twentieth century, Canada was actively promoted as the Last Best West. The idea that Canada would follow the American experience (or even that the twentieth century would be “Canada’s century”) lies behind the characteristic settlement propaganda around the turn of the twentieth century, which also lies at the core of one of the most familiar social myths – the American Dream. This paper constitutes a sociological examination of such propaganda.

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