It would be wishful thinking, however, to believe that the acceptance of diversity is universal in Canada. The same old arguments are still being heard from those who claim that Canada s liberal immigration and refugee policies are destroying the character of the country. The answer to that, of course, is that immigration is what gave the country its uniquely cosmopolitan character in the first place. It is a country, remember, in which no single national-origin group is in the majority. The real majority is a multicultural one, and it has learned to embrace diversity as central to its existence.
Diversity is as Canadian as maple syrup.
It is embedded in the soil of an immense nation with landscapes as different from each other as Southern Ontario and Nunavut, as the rocky coast of Newfoundland and the plains of Manitoba. The pronounced differences in the regions and in the lifestyles of the people who inhabit them have conditioned Canadians to accept the idea that differences are an intrinsic part of life. This leads directly to the idea that people need not be of the same racial stock to live contentedly together. That was the core idea of Confederation that people of French and British origin could build a nation in an atmosphere of mutual respect. The vision of the Fathers of Confederation is especially impressive considering that they originated from two nations which had been warring with each other for centuries.