http://wcfia.harvard.edu/programs/canada
Is it a program where current Harvard students are interested in courses revolving around Canada (its history, politics and government and contemporary society)?
Is it a good idea to study Canadian politics and government at Harvard? Does Harvard offer it? If I study politics and government at Harvard, is it only useful for American politics and government?
Thank you!
Harvard doesn’t offer a separate concentration for undergraduates in Canadian history or politics/government. An undergraduate could certainly pursue an interest in Canadian politics and government within the Harvard Government concentration, which is by no means limited to U.S. politics and government. But that interest would largely have to be pursued through independent study and research.
The program you linked is one of hundreds of nooks and crannies within the vast apparatus that constitutes Harvard University. What it looks like to me is essentially a relatively small fund whose purpose is to ensure funding is available for graduate students writing theses on Canadian topics and visiting faculty with Canada expertise. In theory, that ought to produce some minimum baseline of Canada-oriented courses available to Harvard undergraduates, but it’s awfully hard to find evidence of that in the college course catalog.
One note to the OP and other curious prospective students, whether or not you are interested in Harvard or Canada: You know what’s a fabulous research tool about a college? Its course catalog and departmental websites, all of which are generally available online. You can look at them and see what majors are offered and what majors aren’t offered. You can see the courses that are taught, too. Sure, those change year to year, but a lot less than you might imagine. You can see what the requirements are for each major – what courses are required, and what are elective – and you can think about how you would pursue a particular interest within the structure of a major (or minor). You can see what interests faculty members have, and often graduate students’ interests, too, which will be a pretty good guide to where the department’s strengths are.
@gibby : I could do that, too. Only a handful of those courses are offered in Harvard College, and it looks like only one of them has more than a glancing focus on Canada. That’s the one on comparative popular culture in North America, so it’s of pretty limited interest to someone who wants to learn about Canadian politics.
I shamefully admit that I took a basic Canadian politics class at my Ivy as an easy course during 1st semester of my senior year. It was literally, Canadian civics.
What was worse was that 3/4 of the hockey team was in the back row each day – all Canadians – taking the equivalent of a 6th grade class, for them.
I’m sure that class balanced the rest of a very difficult schedule, and you’d be quick to add, @T26E4, that this ivy was not Harvard? 
hahaha. At my school (not Harvard), we called these classes “guts” and YES, I took “Government and Politics of Canada” as an easier class during my very busy Senior year!
Maybe better to just go to U of Toronto.
Or McGill
I am sort of surprised that Harvard doesn’t have a “Government and Politics of Canada” course. It really ought to.
If you use gibby’s link, hit “Start Over,” and look for FAS courses on “Mexico,” you get a whole bunch of very relevant courses on Mexican, specifically, or Latin American, politics, culture, history, literature, etc. I would think Canada deserved a little of that, too. It hasn’t had as many colorful revolutions or as much drug violence as Mexico, but it’s an awfully important chunk of North America. Not to mention that there’s several million dollars worth of endowment at Harvard waiting to support scholarship about Canada. Plus . . Joni Mitchell, Justin Bieber, Michael Cera, Ellen Page, Seth Rogen. And Rob Ford. It’s not that Canada is without color and mystery.
Where’s the love, Harvard?
They were called “guts” at Harvard too, @T26E4. When you list all those Canadian celebs, @JHS, how can you leave out Justin Trudeau? He’s the Canadian Justin, imo.
Americans’ ignorance of Canada never fails to astound me, even among supposedly highly educated people. My parents came form Newfoundland and my older son graduated from McGill so my interest in Canada came easily.
I am a foreign-born Canadian citizen, in Freshman year, studying at Upper Canada College. I am trying to decide which politics and government I should pursue - Canadian or American. What’s good about Canadian is that foreign born Canadian citizens can be a Prime Minister while in America, you need to be an American-born citizen or at least one of your parents is a citizen (Ted Cruz). However Canadian politics is kinda boring since nothing much is going on. In America, there’s something always happening so the politicians are always busy plus I really want to go to Harvard. There are Canadian politicians who went to Harvard. I wonder what they pursued that still made them partake in Canadian government.
I don’t think Canadian politics are boring at all. There’s tons going on, all the time, but in general it’s more civil and progressive than in the U.S. There are more than two parties. As EastGrad points out, your current leader is a lot more attractive on many levels than anyone we are going to see for the next four years.
My daughter’s BFF went to McGill. During orientation, she was stunned to discover that – in U.S. terms, a decidedly left-of-center Democrat – in Canada (or at least in Montreal) her political views made her something of a conservative.
(I spent a good deal of time in Canada when I was young, and I have close relatives in Toronto and Montreal whom I see regularly, there and in the U.S.)
As for the American Constitution: Yes, you can’t become President anymore if you were not a U.S. citizen at birth. Ted Cruz was, I believe. That’s not an especially good reason to reject the United States. Realistically, it’s not likely to have a meaningful impact on your life. Lots of political offices will be open to you. And you won’t have to demonstrate fluency in French, either.
Thanks for the helpful response. Yes, Canadian political parties tend to be at the centre of the spectrum. As for Justin Trudeau, not a lot of people like him since he only got like 37% of the federal vote. The Western Canadians particularly don’t like him but the Torontonians tend to like him. So if I go to Harvard, can I still use the political science degree to work in a government or political office in Canada?
Americans have no idea that in the 1995 referendum Québec came within 0.2% of separating from Canada and forming an independent nation. This would have split the rest of Canada geographically into two parts and created unimaginable instability in the rest of the country. Canadian politics at times is definitely not boring.
Oh yes, I know about the 1995 Quebec Referendum. It was so close like what you said but now, I don’t think there will be another Quebec Referendum since there are increasing number of English-speaking minorities that are moving there and I don’t think they would want Quebec to separate.
I have more interest in American politics likely because of the many issues going on there and that the hype over Republican vs Democrat is huge. I am not 100% sure yet, I mean I am only going to Sophomore Year.
Are you considering applying to Harvard as a transfer student? Graduate school? What’s your goal?
No, I am going to be a sophomore (high school) this coming September but I am just trying to prepare earlier for university. I want to become a lawyer and politician. I heard that being a lawyer in America is difficult unless you graduated in the top 10% of a prestigious law school. I am deciding hard in whether or not I will pursue Canadian or American politics.
You can go to college and law school in the U.S. and still become a lawyer (and go into politics) in Canada, although if you know by the time you graduate from college that you want to be in Canada, it’s much easier if you go to law school in Canada. If you go to law school in the U.S., you will wind up having to take a special exam on Canadian law in addition to the normal bar exam, or spend an extra year getting an LLM degree from a Canadian law school. In addition, all new lawyers in Canada have to spend a year “articling” for a senior lawyer, and there isn’t a lot of infrastructure in place to match U.S. law students with articles positions.
It’s not anywhere near accurate to say that being a lawyer in America is difficult unless you graduated in the top 10% of a prestigious law school. The truth is (a) making a lot of money practicing law requires really, really hard work, especially if you are a young lawyer, so in that sense it’s difficult being a lawyer for everyone, and (b) if you want a high-paying position with a well-known, international firm right out of law school, you probably need to do reasonably well (i.e., middle of the class or better) at one of the 10-15 highest prestige law schools, or else be very close to the top of the class at the best non-high-prestige local law school in the city where you will work. Plenty of people who don’t meet that standard do fine, though, but it takes a lot of work, and it sure isn’t for everyone. You certainly shouldn’t take on a lot of debt to go to a third-tier or lower law school.
But . . . that’s years in the future for you. Years and years. Give yourself another year before you even start thinking seriously about college. When you do, you will learn that (a) Canada has a number of high-quality research universities, like Toronto, McGill, UBC, and Waterloo, and (b) for Canadian citizens, they are much cheaper than American universities (unless you are indigent and get enormous financial aid, or qualify for a huge merit scholarship, very few of which go to non-U.S. students), and their admission process is basically transparent and painless. You have to really, really want to go to an American college to do all the work (and pay all the money) that will require.