The greater half of the continent: Continentalism and the Canadian state in Ontario, 1878--1896

Using Foucault's concepts of governmentality and counter-conduct, this thesis examines the significance of the continentalist movement to Ontario politics and governance between 1878--1896. By situating the movement in the broader developments of Canadian state formation, chiefly the National Policy, as well as the continental aspects of daily life in Ontario, the thesis attempts to amplify the scholarship of the continentalist movement by providing an explanation of the geneaology of the movement and its subsequent formalization as a counter-conduct aimed at reorganizing governance in the Canadian state along civic republican lines. Similarly, the thesis traces the popular manifestations of continentalism, particularly among agrarian classes, and the various reactions to these popular manifestations by the Liberal and Conservative parties between 1887--1896, leading to the eventual marginalization of the movement and the emergence by 1896 of a short-lived orthodoxy of protectionism.