Charles Mair

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Charles Mair

Charles Mair (1838 or 1840 – 1927) was a Canadian poet and fervent nationalist noted for his organisation of the Canada First movement and his role opposing the provisional government of Louis Riel during the Red River Rebellion of 1869 – 1870 and during the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Mair was a Freemason[1]

The modern Canadian critic Alan Filewood wrote of the politicial and philosophical ideas expressed by Mair in his "Tecumseh"^[1]:

Mair's projection of Canadian nationhood is embodied in the character of Lefroy, a Byronesque poet who flees civilization to seek solace in nature's genius.

He learns - tragically - from the British General Brock that natural law finds its outward form in the monarchic principle, and from the Indian chieftain Tecumseh that nature must be defended against the perversion of American materialism.

The dying Tecumseh legitimizes the proto-(Anglo) Canadians as the natural guardians of the land, and Canadian manhood finds mature expression in a race of armed poets.(...)

Mair looked to the day when the dominions would assume the responsibilities of adulthood: Then shall a whole family of young giants stand 'Erect, unbound, at Britain's side-' her imperial offspring oversea, the upholders in the far future of her glorious tradition, or, should exhaustion ever come, the props and supports of her declining years.