From: cs911461@ariel.yorku.ca (CHRISTIAN D. ARMOUR)
Subject: Re: NET CHALLENGE (Excerpt from The Economist)
Organization: York University, Toronto, Canada
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 02:38:02 GMT



What follows is an excerpt from a "Survey of Canada" by the
internationally respected newsmagazine "The Economist".  The
survey was published on June 29th, 1991.

"FOR WANT of GLUE"
(A Survey of Canada)

p. 10: "No ethic for the ethnics"

---- snip ---- snip ---- snip ---- snip ---- snip ---- snip 

Canada is now, above all, an immigrant society: some 15% of
its people were born abroad, compared with about 7% in the
United States, and this year, it expects to receive about
220,000 new immigrants.  Nearly half of them will come from
Asia; few will be French or British.

[...] As far as most of the immigrants are concerned, they
have little to complain about.  Of course racism and discrimi-
nation can be found in Canada, just as they can be everywhere,
but probably to a lesser extent in any other country and 
certainly than in any other country that receives so many new-
comers -- nearly 1% of the total population from next year.
Immigrants to Canada live in a tolerant country that genuinely
welcomes both immigrants and refugees; indeed, it finds it 
almost impossible to send people away once they have turned
up.  Moreover, it has made multiculturalism an official 
policy, enshrining it in it's Charter of Rights and endowing
it with public money.

Yet something is missing for these new Canadians; it is 
Canadianism.  Immigrants to the United States can readily 
aspire to the values of Americanism.  The Declaration of
Independence, Horatio Alger, the American Dream: what makes
immigrants tick is what makes Americans tick.  Immigrants to
Quebec know what's expected of them, even if they do not like
it: it is to become Quebeckers.  That means they should
identify with Quebec's sense of history, its projet de 
societe and its national ethic.  Immigrants to the ROC [Rest
of Canada] are merely invited to learn English (it does not
matter if they fail the simple test they are set after three
years) and answer a few easy questions about Canada.  They
should also try to be nice.

Niceness is not going to build a new nation, or even hold a
young one together, however much it is supported by 
government-sponsored folk dances.  Canada is blessed with
many natural resources but not much binding national fabric.
As Sir John Macdonald, the federation's first prime minister
once remarked, the place has "too much geography and too 
little history".

[...] Moreover, an increasing number of Canadians, about a
quarter of the total, have roots in neither Britain nor
France.  Of these, many, over 6% of the total, are black or
brown or yellow -- known in Canada as members of visible 
minorities, or visimins (if their home language is neither
English nor French, they are know as allophones).  Given 
that few have much desire to become Quebeckers, they find
themselves with only two elements of Canadianism to cling
to: multiculturalism, which encourages them to maintain 
their own traditions; and the Charter of Rights, which 
encourages them to think of themselves as ethnic groups.
Both are thus more divisive than binding.

[...]

---- snip ---- snip ---- snip ---- snip ---- snip ---- snip 


C. Armour-Kidson
cs911461@ariel.yorku.ca
Newsgroups: alt.politics.democrats.d,alt.politics.bush,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.clinton