The New Canada

“Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.”

~Marshall McLuhan

Canada has always been the good brother of the U.S. to me, I didn’t know much about it aside from the usual jokes and comparisons often seen on TV, luckily this class made me look beyond that stereotype wall, Canada has become one of the most interesting places in the English speaking world, tailored by its multicultural flag.

Multiculturalism is not something new on Canada, it is something that carries from its roots. England and France came to what is Canada today, each by their own reasons, the English wanted to expand the commerce in the Pacific Ocean, and France wanted a slice of America with expanding ports on the Atlantic Ocean. As time passed and Canada got unified as a country, the English part of Canada started growing really fast, the francophone afraid of losing their identity, formed their own state (Québec) and as of today they have already tried of become independent trice, the Parliament of Canada as a symbolic gesture named Québec a nation within a United Canada.

While the Francophone and Anglophone inhabited the south of the country, in the north of the country (mostly unoccupied) were the aboriginal of Canada, the Inuits,

they were mostly left aside by the country until the forties when the government started giving their land and recognized them as part of Canada.

 

In the fifties Canada started their big Multicultural plan, seeing as they already had a diverse community, they wanted to expand, they acknowledge the richness of having different people, of mixing up different cultures.

As of today Canada is the most Multicultural country in the world, large portions of people, especially from Asia, choose Canada as their home, approximately 41% of current Canadians are first or second-generation immigrants and this seem to grow in the future.

When I read the quote I posted I do not really see about a country without identity, I see a country that is bringing the world together, that is clashing different cultures and showing that integration in the world is possible, I see something beautiful.