Between Postwar and Present Day: Canada, 1970 – 2000 – Local, National, Global
Canadian History Conference
Thursday, May 6th - Sunday, May 9th, 2021
To be hosted online via Hopin
Temporal and politically laden frameworks such as the “long sixties” and “the just society” are not easily applied to the decades that followed. Between 1970 and 2000 a series of significant economic, cultural, and social shifts destabilized the contested post-war liberal consensus.
The repatriation of the Constitution and passage of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provided hard-won platforms for Indigenous peoples, women, queer communities, people with disabilities, and immigrants and refugees to have a greater influence on politics and society; many of these movements had strong connections to struggles elsewhere.
At the same time, global neoliberal policies were having an impact on the economy and on national politics, with the result that support for programs that fostered inclusion, equality, and high rates of well-paying employment diminished. Culturally, Indigenous politics rooted in international decolonization movements, tensions between Quebec and Canada, Canada and the United States and challenges to Canada’s recently redefined identity as an inclusive and multicultural nation made “Canadian identity” an increasingly fraught subject. These decades, which laid the foundation for present-day Canada, require further analysis from historians and other scholars.
“Between Postwar and Present Day” brings together scholars exploring political, economic, cultural, and social change in Canada from 1970 through the 1990s. How were these shifts shaped by global politics? How did local, national, and international histories “overlap” to shape individual and collective experiences? What frameworks might be most effective for understanding the changes and continuities of this period? This period, falling between the present day and the postwar “boom,” is essential to our understanding of Canada in the twentieth century.
For more information, please visit the conference website:
Please complete the form to register for the conference.
Participation in the Conference is free for attendees, but there is a cost per attendee borne by the Conference organizers, so please only register if you plan on attending.
Please get in touch if you have any questions at betweenpostwar@utoronto.ca