Olympic Fever

The national news cycle is about to be completely dominated by the Olympics, which should provide Stephen Harper with his much-desired respite from his prorogation woes, and perhaps cover for any initiatives he's been waiting for the opportunity to slide into action without much media attention.

Since I'm not above using popular events to garner a wee bit of attention for academic pursuits, I'll be giving a talk at 7 pm on Tuesday night at the Bookshelf eBar in Guelph. My talk is part of the Café Philosophique series organized by the University of Guelph's College of Arts. My discussion will focus on the changing nature of Canadian identity, and more specifically, governmental efforts to shape the discourse surrounding this identity, since World War II. The Olympics, I argue, feature rather significantly in the most recent phase of efforts to come up with popular discourses of Canadian identity, a phase which stresses the individual achievements of Canadians. If you're interested, drop on by the Bookshelf's eBar on Tuesday for a drink and some interesting conversation.

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