Roasting Chestnuts: The Mythology of Maritime Political Culture

"Roasting Chestnuts" is a book about outdated political stereotypes. The Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia are often regarded as a pre-modern hinterland in which corrupt practices and traditional loyalties continue to predominate. While this depiction of Maritime political life may, at one time, have been largely accurate, this is no longer the case. Employing a variety of indicators, this book argues that a new set of political images are needed to capture Maritime political reality today. What emerges from the analysis is a picture of maritime politics which no longer markedly differs from that which exists in the rest of Canada. Maritimers no longer exhibit idiosyncratically low levels of political trust and political efficacy. There is no regional political culture which transcends political boundaries. The New Democratic party is not now significantly constrained by the social structure and political culture of the three provinces. Petty electoral corruption is not flourishing on Prince Edward Island, nor do Islanders hold deferential attitudes towards the federal government. The United Empire Loyalists did not give a conservative flavour to the politics of New Brunswick, and the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties of Nova Scotia do, in fact, represent distinct ideological tendencies. Finally, provincial political elites have been innovators; radical departures from Canadian political norms have indeed occurred in the Maritime provinces. "Roasting Chestnuts" exposes the flimsy basis for many of the region's political stereotypes and argues that political scientists have too easily accepted them without adequate supporting evidence. As Ian Stewart shows, the previously unchallenged depictions of Maritime politics are not true today.