A Distinctive Canadian Sociology? D.B. TINDALL University of British Columbia Professor Ralph Matthews has had, and continues to have, a long and dis- tinguished career “committing sociology” in Canada. His work has spanned a number of different areas in sociology, including political economy, the social construction of environmental issues, regionalism in Canada, and social capital in natural resource communities, to name a few. In his fine essay, “Committing Canadian Sociology: Developing a Canadian Sociology and a Sociology of Canada,” Matthews (2014) pro- poses, and sketches the elements of, a Canadian Sociology (referred to as CS below). Matthews’ (2014) engaging and insightful essay provides an opportunity for sociologists to reflect on aspects of the discipline, an opportunity a few of us take up in the present issue. Matthews (2014) describes his paper as “ . . . a reflection on what the most appropriate explanatory stance should be for Canadian Sociology as a discipline” (pp. 109–100). He makes a distinction between the Sociology of Canada (SOC) and Canadian Sociology (CS) (p. 110). He states that Sociology of Canada “ . . . involves all the work (empirical and conceptual) that we collectively do when describing and analyzing Canadian society” (p. 110). By contrast: A Canadian Sociology is an explanatory stance, directed toward understand- ing the “fundamentals” of Canadian social organization, identity, institutions, and culture. And here is the key point. Its explanatory stance is to seek to understand them as different from the social organization, identity, institutions, and culture of other societies. That is, it is my position that Canadian Sociology should seek to understand Canada, in its own terms. (P. 110) D.B. Tindall, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6303 N.W. Marine Drive, Van- couver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1. E-mail: tindall@mail.ubc.ca C  2014 Canadian Sociological Association/La Soci´ et´ e canadienne de sociologie