The Canadian Führer: The Life of Adrian Arcand
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by Jean-François Nadeau
Lorimer, Toronto, 2010
360 pp., illus., $35 hardcover
Adolf Hitler’s name is so synonymous with evil, and his Nazi party so rightly reviled, that it’s difficult today to believe that he was once revered by a significant segment of Canadian society.
And yet, it’s true. In the 1930s, fascism — and particularly Nazism — was admired and even embraced by some Canadians.
In The Canadian Führer: The Life of Adrian Arcand, author Jean-François Nadeau bring us the tale of Hitler’s chief Canadian disciple: Adrian Arcand, a Quebec journalist and bigot who dreamed of transforming Canada into a whites-only fascist dictatorship.
Nadeau’s writing is thorough, and the story he tells is chilling. But for me it’s the photos in the book that are the most disturbing. Looking at the images of jackbooted white Quebecers — each wearing paramilitary uniforms adorned with swastikas — one is reminded of the fragility of our multicultural society and of the continuing need to protect it from the modern-day lunatic fringe.
This review appeared in the August-September 2012 issue of Canada's History magazine.
— Mark Collin Reid (Read bio)
Mark Collin Reid is the Editor-in-Chief of Canada's History.