Selling the Ideal
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Image:
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Small House Designs. 1950.
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/schl-cmhc/NH17-64-1950-eng.pdf Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.
Caption:
Website Access
Above, you see many great examples of rhetoric about housing designs found throughout Canada. Designs are being presented as something desirable that every Canadian can have. Many narratives about homeownership are included here to portray housing as a necessity of a successful postwar life. All examples point to ownership as being synonymous with the 'Canadian dream.' Repetition of these similar house designs creates a uniformity in this singular way of living.
Standardization was promoted not only through suburban construction but also through figured captions. In Figure 3, you will notice that CMHC housing catalogues present standardized homes as both functional and beautiful. By creating postcards that advertise uniformity in such a positive light, they are raising the desirability of cookie-cutter homes. Providing Canadians with slight variations of the same home normalizes this way of living as correct.
