"I grew up in kind of the last generation of Canadians who thought things that were happening in Britain were more important, almost, than what was happening in Canada. And my mother was fervently of that opinion"
About this Quote
The specific intent is to explain a worldview that shaped his formation as a journalist. If Britain feels “more important,” then Canadian events become, by comparison, local color - worthy of note, maybe, but not of urgency. That mindset doesn’t just affect dinner-table conversation; it sets the agenda of what counts as “serious” news, whose institutions feel legitimate, whose conflicts deserve moral attention.
The subtext sits in the word “fervently.” This wasn’t casual Anglophilia; it was belief, almost creed. MacNeil’s mother stands in for an older Canadian social order that borrowed prestige from the metropole and treated British life as a proxy for sophistication. There’s also an undertone of class: fidelity to Britain often functioned as a marker of taste and status, a way to separate “proper” Canadians from the new, noisy North American reality next door.
Context matters: MacNeil came of age as Canada was renegotiating its identity after WWII, through decolonization, the rise of Canadian cultural policy, Quebec nationalism, and a media landscape slowly turning its cameras inward. The quote is less nostalgia than a timestamp on Canada’s long exit from someone else’s spotlight.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mother |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
MacNeil, Robert. (2026, January 15). I grew up in kind of the last generation of Canadians who thought things that were happening in Britain were more important, almost, than what was happening in Canada. And my mother was fervently of that opinion. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-grew-up-in-kind-of-the-last-generation-of-77025/
Chicago Style
MacNeil, Robert. "I grew up in kind of the last generation of Canadians who thought things that were happening in Britain were more important, almost, than what was happening in Canada. And my mother was fervently of that opinion." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-grew-up-in-kind-of-the-last-generation-of-77025/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I grew up in kind of the last generation of Canadians who thought things that were happening in Britain were more important, almost, than what was happening in Canada. And my mother was fervently of that opinion." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-grew-up-in-kind-of-the-last-generation-of-77025/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
