Shared destiny: understanding the relationship between national identity and Canadian Medicare.

How has Canadian Medicare become associated with Canadian national identity? Understanding the modern nation-state as a ‘political community’ structured to legitimate private property relations and understanding Canadian Medicare as nationally shared property, this study aims to reveal how Medicare has become the most emblematic symbol of Canadian national identity. By first providing (1) a review of perspectives and concepts for understanding the modern nation-state and modern nationalism, then, (2) an examination of the roots of Canadian national identity and the origins of public health care in Canada, this study argues that forms of shared property, such as Medicare, have the ability to provide a shared national consciousness that is above the otherwise private interests of disparate individuals within the liberal democratic nation-state.