VERTICAL MOSAIC AMONG THE ELITES - THE NEW IMAGERY REVISITED

The over-representation of British and the under-representation of Fre nch and ''other'' ethnic groups amongst the Canadian elites has been a part of the Canadian academic consciousness since the publication of Porter's Vertical Mosaic (1965), Clement's Canadian Corporate Elite (1 975) and Olsen's State Elite (1980). Recently, a series of articles by Ogmundson and Ogmundson/McLaughlin has raised doubts about the vertic al ethnic distribution of power among elites, suggesting that conventi onal wisdom should be abandoned. This paper uses the data provided by Ogmundson and McLaughlin (1992), standardizes them to the ethnic compo sition of the Canadian population, and shows that the new imagery prov ided by these authors is misleading. The analysis demonstrates a stabl e pattern of British dominance from 1935 to 1987 for each category of elites. It also reveals that, consistent with Porter, Clement and Olse n, the French and ''other'' ethnic groups have improved their particip ation at the elite levels but remain underrepresented in relation to t heir populations.