Donald Creighton
Donald Grant Creighton (July 15, 1902-December 19, 1979) is a
noted Canadian historian. Born in
Toronto he attended Victoria College, in the University of Toronto. He then attended Balliol College at Oxford University before
returning to Canada to teach history. Creighton belonged to an generation of Canadians were proud of the British Empire and his Anglophilia was often expressed in his books.
Creighton was heavily influenced by Harold Innis and took an economic
approach to Canadian History. His main contribution was the
development of the Laurentian Thesis, which described the basis of Canadian history by looking at the geography and the
nation's dependence on the major centres. His two most important works are The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence
(1937) and his two volume biography of John A. Macdonald.
In later years Creighton turned to expressing himself in the media. An intensive Canadian nationalist his opinions have often
been criticized, especially his alleged anti-Quebec views. Creighton felt that the
position of the French language in Canada should be more or less what the British North America Act had prescribed. As such
Creighton was not englamored about the changes such as Bilinguism coast to coast that were introduced in the 1960s. His last
book, The Forked Road: Canada, 1939-1957, is a clear example of how out-of-touch he became in later years. An strong
Conservative, Creighton's heroes were MacDonald and Robert Borden, and he
himself served as speech-writer for John Diefenbaker. He died of cancer in Collingwood, Ontario in 1979.
Creighton was regarded by many as the foremost historian of his day and his influence is still strongly felt. Many of Canada's
top historians studied under Creighton, such as Ramsay Cook and Michael Bliss, and Creighton's view of Canadian history is still often
studied.
In 1967 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Brock University history professor Donald A. Wright is writing a
biography.
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