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www.policymagazine.ca July—August 2019
Canadian Politics and Public Policy
The Canadian Idea
$6.95 Volume 7—Issue 4
On On June 6, 1919,
Track
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Route # of daily Distance Productive Non-productive Cost Cost Taxpayer savings
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by car** train (as low as) train travel***
Ottawa Toronto Up to 20 450 km 4 h 25 min 4 h 46 min $487 $49 $438
Ottawa Montréal Up to 12 198 km 1 h 50 min 2 h 21 min $230 $37 $193
Ottawa Québec City Up to 8 482 km 5 h 39 min 4 h 47 min $510 $49 $461
Toronto Montréal Up to 13 541 km 4 h 49 min 5 h 39 min $583 $49 $534
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Fares and conditions are subject to change without notice. TMTrademark owned by VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Canadian Politics and
Public Policy
EDITOR
L. Ian MacDonald
lianmacdonald@policymagazine.ca
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Lisa Van Dusen
lvandusen@policymagazine.ca
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Thomas S. Axworthy,
Andrew Balfour, Yaroslav Baran,
Derek H. Burney, Catherine Cano,
Margaret Clarke, Celine Cooper,
Rachel Curran, Susan Delacourt, In This Issue
Graham Fraser, Dan Gagnier,
Martin Goldfarb, Sarah Goldfeder,
Patrick Gossage, Frank Graves, 6 From the Editor / L. Ian MacDonald
The Canadian Idea
Brad Lavigne, Kevin Lynch,
Jeremy Kinsman, Andrew MacDougall,
Carissima Mathen, Velma McColl, 7 Peter Mansbridge
The Evolution of Arrival
David McLaughlin, David Mitchell,
Don Newman, Geoff Norquay,
Fen Osler Hampson, Robin V. Sears, 10 Graham Fraser
Through the Lens of Language
Gil Troy, Lori Turnbull, Jaime Watt,
Anthony Wilson-Smith
WEB DESIGN 13 Shachi Kurl
From My Parents’ Homeland to My Own
Nicolas Landry
policy@nicolaslandry.ca
SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR
16 Elizabeth May
Big Country, Small World
Grace MacDonald
gmacdonald@policymagazine.ca 19 Vianne Timmons
The Canadian Idea Hinges on a Promise Fulfilled
GRAPHIC DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Monica Thomas
monica@foothillsgraphics.ca 22Sarah Goldfeder
An American in Canada: It’s Complicated
Policy
Policy is published six times annually 25 Thomas S. Axworthy
The Canadian Idea That Spawned the Others
by LPAC Ltd. The contents are
copyrighted, but may be reproduced
with permission and attribution in 32 Lori Turnbull
The Conscience of the Country
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the Policy home page at
www.policymagazine.ca. 35 Donald J. Johnston
Better Than Good Enough
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Racism in Canada: Planting the Seeds of Inclusion
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May You Live in Canadian Times
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Policy
5
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6
From the Editor / L. Ian MacDonald
The Canadian Idea
W
elcome to our special sum- is one herself, her parents having im- ter Pierre Trudeau from 1981-84. He
mer issue on The Canadian migrated from India. Her firm found writes that without Canada coming of
Idea. The American idea, that two-thirds of Canadians think of age as a federation under the BNA Act,
abolitionist preacher Theodore Park- irregular border crossings as “a crisis”. there would have been no Charter.
er declared in 1850, comprised three Elizabeth May has a favourite way of For her part, Lori Turnbull sees Cana-
elements: that all people are creat- seeing the country and talking to vot- da’s constitution as unique in its de-
ed equal, that all possess unalien- ers—on the train. As Green Party Lead- sign in that it has both written and
able rights, and that all should have er, half her life is spent traveling back unwritten parts, reflecting the influ-
the opportunity to develop and enjoy and forth across the country. “Hon- ence of the American and British con-
those rights. There has never been a estly,” she writes, “I do not think that stitutions respectively.
comparable articulation of the Cana- anyone who has not seen the coun- Don Johnston, former Liberal cabinet
dian Idea, so for our Policy Magazine try by rail—or at least by leisurely road minister and Secretary General of the
Summer Special: The Canadian Idea, trip—can claim to have seen it at all.” Organisation for Economic Cooper-
we’ve asked an outstanding group of
Vianne Timmons grew up as one of ation and Development, writes that
contributors for their sense of what
six children in Labrador. She and her trying to describe the Canadian idea
Canada represents.
five siblings became the first genera- can be like the proverb about a blind
And there’s a strong consensus that tion of their working-class family to man describing an elephant: “Many
the idea of Canada is partly rooted in attend university. Vianne has served of us have impressions of particular
its geography and also in its status as a for more than a decade as President of regions, cities and people, but very
nation of immigrants, one whose na- University of Regina. She’s a champi- few know it in much detail from sea
tional narrative has evolved from tol- on of Indigenous empowerment and to sea to sea.”
erance to inclusiveness. inclusion in the halls of academic and After a career as an advocate for Nova
political power. “I still believe,” she Scotia’s Black community and war-
As Peter Mansbridge, himself an
writes, “that one of those little girls I rior against racism, Wanda Thomas
immigrant from post-war Britain,
have seen in Rankin Inlet can be our Bernard became a Senator in 2016.
writes: “The country has changed
prime minister some day.” “Despite being historically perceived
a lot in the sixty-five years since I
walked down that gangway, not Sarah Goldfeder, now an Ottawa- as a ‘Promised Land’ and 185 years af-
much more than a toddler, and I’ve based consultant, spent some 10 years ter emancipation,” she writes, “peo-
witnessed Canada change and grow with the U.S. State Department and ple of African descent still do not
and mature.” He concludes that Can- stayed in Canada after her last post- have equitable access to opportunity
ada is a country of imperfections ing. “When Americans ask me how I in Canada.”
“and it’s time we dealt with it.” find living in Canada, it’s a hard ques- Jeremy Kinsman has served Canada
tion,” she notes. “I chose Canada but at home and abroad, as ambassador
As a reporter and author on Quebec, I love my country.”
and for a decade as Commissioner of to Russia, the U.K. and EU. He con-
C
Official Languages in Ottawa, Gra- anada has two constitutional siders how the world view of Canada
ham Fraser has long seen the country frameworks—the federal-pro- has evolved in politics and culture,
through the lens of language. In the vincial bargain and division to a country that no longer passes
Canadian experience, he writes that of powers in the British North Amer- unnoticed.
“the longest history and the deepest ica Act of 1867, and the rights of Ca- Finally, as Canadians approach a gen-
fault line has been that of language.” nadians as individuals articulated in eral election, they’re seeing a lot of the
Pollster Shachi Kurl, executive direc- the Charter of Rights and Freedoms tumult and turmoil of federal-provin-
tor of the Angus Reid Institute in Van- of 1982. cial relations. Columnist Don New-
couver, considers the attitude of Ca- Tom Axworthy knows a lot about the man considers it, and concludes it’s
Charter; it happened on his watch as all in the Canadian nature of things.
nadians towards first-generation born
Canadians of immigrant parents. She principal secretary to Prime Minis- Enjoy.
Policy
7 7
Peter Mansbridge and his wife, actor Cynthia Dale, accepting their honorary Doctor of Laws degrees at McMaster University on June 12, 2017, more
than 60 years after Mansbridge, as an excited 5-year-old, led his family down the gangway of the SS Samaria on what was for him, “day one of a great
journey”. Photo by Ron Scheffler for McMaster University
The Evolution of Arrival
It’s hard to think of anyone who knows more about Peter Mansbridge
T
Canada than the man who, every night for nearly 30 he morning broke cold and
years, told us what was happening here and around the overcast in Quebec City on
April 23rd, 1954 as the SS Sa-
world. Peter Mansbridge asked the questions Canadians maria of the Cunard Shipping Line
couldn’t and masterfully filled the gaps during royal vis- slid into port. It had left the Unit-
its, national tragedies and, perhaps most memorably, ed Kingdom only a week earlier.
The old one-stacker had started life
every Remembrance Day, when his appreciation of both as a cruise ship in the twenties be-
history and sacrifice was unabashed. The country, and fore being converted into a troop
ship shuttling young men across the
its newcomers, have changed since he arrived in what North Atlantic during the war. Now,
was then still an ‘outpost of British civility.’ less than a decade after the Second
World War had ended, it was liv-
July/August 2019
8
ing out its last days bringing immi- The country has changed a lot in the sixty-five
grants on the voyage to what many
still called the “new world”. Anxious
years since I walked down that gangway not much
to step on land, an excited 5-year- more than a toddler, and I’ve witnessed Canada change,
old, braving the Canadian cold in and grow, and mature.
gray shorts, gray socks and a sensi-
ble English knit sweater, led his fam-
ily down the gangway to a group of
waiting Canadian immigration offi-
cials. It would be, for him, day one a photo of that 1958 moment when amples that leave many of us embar-
of a great journey. I was a parliamentary correspondent rassed still.
It was my first day in Canada. for the CBC in Ottawa—amazingly,
But two world wars and the fear that
he remembered every detail of the
My father, a decorated veteran of other conflicts could start—that hu-
encounter. He signed it for me and
the Royal Air Force, had been of- man slaughter could occur again—
it remains one of my prized posses-
fered a job in the Canadian public changed things. Fairly quickly,
sions to this day.
service. Along with my mother, they Canadians started to gain the repu-
T
were anxious to find a safe haven tation that, at least when a crisis was
he country has changed a lot at hand, our shores welcomed those
to raise their young family. They’d in the sixty-five years since most threatened.
been through the great conflict in I walked down that gangway
Europe, and followed that with four not much more than a toddler, and When the Hungarian uprising
years of tense times for British gov- I’ve witnessed Canada change, and against the Soviets was crushed in
ernment officials when we lived in grow, and mature. 1956, hundreds of thousands of
Malaya. We loved our new country Hungarians fled across the border
and, as kids, my sister and I settled Part of the change has been about into Austria. Canada began an air-
in fast. So fast, in fact, that even still immigration, not an issue that flat- lift, and 200 flights brought more
clinging to our accents, we were cho- ters our early history. Until the than 37,000 Hungarians across the
sen, just a few years after coming off 1950s we were known more for Atlantic. In 1968, the Prague Spring
the Samaria, to portray two typical erecting walls than laying out the ended in similar fashion when the
Canadian students in a film for the welcome mat. Just ask the Chinese, tanks moved into the cobblestone
National Film Board, “A Visit to the or the Japanese, or the East Indians streets of the Czech capital. Another
Parliament Buildings”. It even in- who tried to come to Canada at the exodus, and this time Canada took
cluded a scene with the new prime dawn of the 20th century, or Jewish in almost eleven thousand.
minister, John Diefenbaker. Twen- immigrants desperate to find a home
Our immigration records show that
ty years later I showed “The Chief” in the 1930s. Or so many other ex-
in the early 1970s, the United States
was the largest source country for
immigration. Why? It appears those
trying to avoid the draft for Viet-
nam boosted the numbers. Estimates
range as high as 40,000. In 1972, Idi
Amin’s butchery and forced expul-
sion of Ugandan Asians led Canada
to organize another airlift and secure
citizenship for almost 7,000 people.
I
n the summer of 1979, I found
myself in a refugee camp in
Hong Kong watching a lone Ca-
nadian immigration officer make de-
cisions about which of the so-called
Vietnamese “boat people” would be
allowed to come to Canada. I’ve cov-
ered thousands of stories and inter-
viewed tens of thousands of people
Peter Mansbridge, 10, and his sister, Wendy, 14, with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1958
during filming of the National Film Board’s “A Visit to the Parliament Buildings”.
since, but I’ve never forgotten the
Photo courtesy of Peter Mansbridge details of that moment. His name
Policy
9
was Scott Mullen and he was barely change question. You are surrounded
If you find yourself in
out of university but there he was, by the new faces of Canada, a won-
sitting at a makeshift table among the crowd at a derful mix of everything a true mosa-
thousands of ethnic Chinese who’d Toronto Raptors home ic can produce …. no one would call
risked their lives and given up every- game, the answer is a very it an “Anglo-British outpost”.
thing they owned to pay the exorbi- firm ‘yes’ on the change But outside of that venue, trying to
tant fees ship captains were charging
to help get them out of Vietnam.
question. You are describe, who we are as a nation in
surrounded by the new faces 2019 is a much tougher question to
Mullen had to decide, in an instant, answer. Immigration has always been
of Canada, a wonderful mix
who got in to Canada and who an issue for Canadians, and while
didn’t. I was in awe of the young of everything a true mosaic time has changed the equation a bit,
man’s determination to do the right can produce …. no one it remains a contentious issue.
thing for his country, and do the would call it an ‘Anglo- Why? What does it expose about us?
right thing for those desperate peo- British outpost’. Why do we struggle with it?
ple who simply wanted to find a safe
home for their families. Over the Is it racism? Is it fear? Is it economics?
next year, Canada accepted close to
one hundred thousand. Compare Is it a little bit of all of the above?
Scott Mullen’s resources to what we It’s an easy bet that when Canadi-
witnessed as Canada swooped into passports were mostly British. It’s ans head to the polls this fall, the
the refugee camps in Lebanon to de- who we were then. It’s how we de- big issue for some will still be im-
cide who we’d accept from the brutal fined ourselves. The statistics don’t migration—how many new immi-
and ugly civil war in Syria. Immigra- lie: we were, as the University of To- grants should be let in, from where,
tion officers, armed forces personnel, ronto’s Harold Roper told the Toron- and with what impact. It remains a
the RCMP. A full court press deter- to Star in 2013, a country that saw defining issue, perhaps the defining
mined to ensure there were no ter- itself as an “Anglo-British outpost of issue any country can ask itself—
rorists hidden amongst the tens of British civility”. who are we?
thousands of refugees Canada would
S
eventually welcome. What a differ- When a five-year-old from Syria steps
ence thirty-plus years make. o, what are we now? Have we re- off the plane for his or her first day
ally changed? in Canada, is she or he as excited as
What about the difference 65 years I was all those years ago? Her parents
makes? Let’s think about that for a If you find yourself in the crowd at are dealing with a lot more than my
minute. When the Samaria docked a Toronto Raptors home game, the parents were—for them, the emo-
in 1954, the faces were white, the answer is a very firm “yes” on the tional and financial pressures must
be, at times, overwhelming. Are we as
Canadians as welcoming to that five-
year-old and her family as the coun-
try was to me? I’m not sure.
There are real undercurrents out there
across the land, that when exposed,
call into question what we as individ-
uals believe, and what we want and
expect from our country.
It’s unfinished business and it’s time
we dealt with it.
Peter Mansbridge is the former anchor
and chief correspondent of CBC’s The
National. He is a Distinguished Fellow
at the Munk School of Global Affairs
and Public Policy at the University
of Toronto.After 30 years in the
anchor’s chair, he is now producing
Peter Mansbridge with Canadian veterans and their families at Juno Beach on the 70th documentaries and appearing as a
anniversary of D-Day and the liberation of Normandy, June 2014. Stephanie Jenzer photo public speaker.
July/August 2019
10
Through the Lens of Language
Between the experience of his career covering Quebec pol- My father ended his comments to my
graduation class in 1964 with the ad-
itics during the most crucial chapter of the province’s— vice—at a time when the Brain Drain
and the country’s—history and his role as commissioner was a Canadian worry—that they
should not feel guilty if they decided
of official languages, Graham Fraser possesses a unique to move to the United States.
perspective on Canada’s defining national issue: lan-
“But if you love it, stay, and it will
guage. He also inherited his father’s sense of the Cana- make you very happy.”
dian idea. Good advice, and a modest Canadian
idea. It moved me then, and it moves
me now.
Graham Fraser I followed my father into journal-
W
published article before he died in a ism—he died after my first week
hen I was in my last year
at the Toronto Star—and as things
of high school, 55 years canoeing accident in 1968 was a pro-
turned out, less than a year after his
ago, my father, Blair Fras- file of René Lévesque.
death I spent a week travelling with
er, spoke at the graduation ceremony,
René Lévesque, and I would go on
and used the occasion to talk about
to spend the critical years of my ca-
his idea of the country. It was an idea The Canadian idea reer in journalism following him and
that he later used in A Centennial Ser- with the longest his government. The story of Canada
mon in 1967, and in the conclusion
of his only book, published later that
history and the deepest fault that I tried to tell was that of a coun-
try wrestling with language and con-
year, The Search for Identity. line has been that of
stitutional tensions.
language. Language has
His idea was that what defined the I grew up with my father’s idea of
country was its nearness to the wil-
been for Canada what race
Canada—the story of a country of
derness, to what he called “the has been for the United networks through the wilderness cre-
cleansing experience of solitude.” He States and class has been ated from the canoe routes paddled
posited that mutual affection is not for Great Britain: a defining by French-Canadian voyageurs—and
a national characteristic. “Never in
their history have Canadians demon-
tension, and a continuing saw how it provided the underpin-
ning for other stories: Harold Innis’
strated any warm affection for each challenge. story of the fur trade; Pierre Berton’s
other,” he wrote. “Loyalties have al- story of the railway; Glenn Gould’s
ways been parochial, mutual hostili- idea of Canada’s north; Marshall
ties chronic.” Born, raised and edu- McLuhan’s theories of communica-
cated in the Maritimes, he moved to tion ; F. R. Scott’s idea of justice; Jane
Montreal, worked as a reporter and Jacobs’ views of urbanism; Thomson
Indeed, his view that the strains of
editor, married, and learned French Highway’s indigenous mysticism;
biculturalism were “easing off, as
before moving to Ottawa from where and Charles Taylor’s and Will Kym-
English Canadians rush to learn
he travelled the country and the licka’s ideas about community, lan-
French and English-speaking prov-
world for Maclean’s, and retraced guage and diversity.
inces move, still grudgingly but de-
most of the routes of the voyageurs
finitively, toward the establishment At the same time, Quebec was telling
in a canoe. The Canadian shield, its
of schools in which French is the lan- its own stories about the country—
lakes and rivers, inspired him more
guage of instruction” proved to be through debates between Wilfrid Lau-
than did politicians or clergymen.
more optimistic than prescient. Lan- rier and Henri Bourassa and between
He had intended to write a book on guage continued to be a dividing line Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque and
the Quebec independence move- and a source of tension for much of by voices as diverse as those of Gilles
ment, having written about Quebec the half-century that followed. It re- Vigneault, André Laurendeau, Mi-
nationalism since the 1940s; his last mains a challenge. chel Tremblay, Dany Laferrière, Rob-
Policy11
fewer than 10 per cent able to carry
on a conversation in French. (Just
over 40 per cent of French-speaking
Quebecers can carry on a conversa-
tion in English—still a minority.)
A
nniversaries are useful mo-
ments for reflection, and if
Canada 150 was a lost oppor-
tunity, 2020 offers a more sobering
moment for consideration of what
the country has achieved or failed to
accomplish. For that will be the 25th
anniversary of the 1995 Quebec ref-
erendum, when Canada came with-
in 55,000 votes of the kind of exis-
tential crisis that Britain is now living
through following the Brexit referen-
dum. What’s changed? There was the
transfer of certain responsibilities to
Québec, a greater visibility of Cana-
dian symbols (the unfortunate spon-
sorship program, riddled with corrup-
tion and kickbacks), and the Supreme
Court reference on Quebec secession.
What was not done? There has been
no effort made to increase the con-
tact between the rest of Canada and
Québec; there were no Québec studies
programs established in English-Ca-
nadian universities outside Québec;
there was no Canadian equivalent to
the European Erasmus program es-
tablished to encourage students in
French-speaking and English-speak-
ing universities to spend a year in an
institution of the other language. In
Blair Fraser was one of Canada’s pre-eminent journalists as a Maclean’s reporter and editor. fact, the one such institutional pro-
He died in 1968 during a canoeing accident, a week after his son, Graham, began his prolific
journalism career at the Toronto Star. Photo provided by the Fraser family gram that existed, Collège Militaire
Royal, which received students from
Kingston’s Royal Military College,
ert Lepage, Kim Thuy, Gérard Boucha- tween English-speaking and French- was shut down and is only now close
rd and Boucar Diouf. Each of these in speaking Canadians identified by to resuming its previous status. There
some way, whether intending to or the Royal Commission on Bilingual- was no systematic attempt to make
ism and Biculturalism 50 years ago unilingual Quebecers aware that they
not, articulated a Canadian idea. But
has been eliminated. (This is a suc- could be served in French in nation-
the Canadian idea with the longest
cess that contrasts with the continu- al parks across Canada—and no re-
history and the deepest fault line has
ing racial and class income disparities newed effort to ensure that this was,
been that of language. Language has
in fact, the case. Exchanges did exist,
been for Canada what race has been in the U.S. and Britain.) Bilingualism
as they still do, but they still consti-
for the United States and class has has become a critical qualification for
tute a drop in the bucket.
been for Great Britain: a defining ten- political leadership—as he had hoped
sion, and a continuing challenge. he would be, Lester Pearson is our last In 2005, the Official Languages Act
unilingual prime minister. But bilin- was amended to give federal institu-
There are ways in which our struggles gualism is still very much a minority tions the obligation to take positive
over the last half-century have been characteristic among English-speak- measures for the growth and devel-
successful. The income disparity be- ing Canadians outside Quebec, with opment of minority language com-
July/August 201912
munities. However, in 2018, Judge However, over the last two decades, the University of Winnipeg say, in
Gascon of the Federal Court issued a under Liberal, Conservative and Lib- a discussion of indigenous languag-
decision in which he gave a meticu- eral governments, these initiatives es, “I do not speak my language.”
lous, word by word analysis to dem- have had one thing in common: That is the feeling that all Canadi-
onstrate that the language of the while they have been critically im- ans should have about English and
amended clause was not as binding portant for the vitality of Canada’s French: that they are our languages,
as that in the other parts of the Act. linguistic minority communities, even if we do not speak them.
they have been virtually invisible to
W
We have two national linguistic com-
hat are the other chang- Canada’ linguistic majorities. The Of-
munities in this country that enjoy
es that have occurred over ficial Languages Act, understandably,
national television and radio net-
the last 25 years? We is focussed on the linguistic minori-
works, that generate books, news-
have seen a number of post-second- ties: their rights, their access to servic-
papers, movies, songs—not to men-
ary institutions continue to take es, to education, to justice. So is the
tion jurisprudence. In some ways,
small steps to ensure that university Charter, and the jurisprudence that
the Francophone majority in Quebec
graduates are fully bilingual: the im- has flowed from it.
suffers from insecurity, the Anglo-
mersion program at the University of phone minorities from being misun-
But what has been missing from the
Ottawa, the success of the Bureau des derstood, that Francophone minori-
discussion is a larger question of Ca-
affaires francophones et francophiles ties are invisible and the Anglophone
nadian identity. If Canada’s two of-
(BAFF) at Simon Fraser, the transfor- majority is insensitive. This latter
ficial languages are seen and under-
mation of Collège St. Boniface into a phenomenon is not unusual: all ma-
stood as key components of national
university and the continuing work jorities tend to be insensitive to the
identity, and the health and vitality
being done by York University’s Glen- needs of minorities.
of the two languages and the cultures
don College and Université Ste-Anne.
expressed in them as critical elements
However, these remain boutique pro- Legislation can go part of the way to
in the definition of the country, then
grams. There is no equivalent to the address these challenges. But it can-
the policy is no longer simply about
European Erasmus program, which not go all the way. When all you’ve
minority rights.
finances thousands of students to got is a hammer everything looks like
study in other European countries, to a nail, and at times, all that minority
partake in the idea of Europe. Canada’s official communities have had has been the
hammer of legislation and the anvil
On the other hand, the government languages, and the
of the courts.
of Ontario has abolished the inde- policies that support them,
pendent position of Commission- need to be understood and But governments at all levels need
er of French-language Services and to lift their eyes and raise their game
promoted for their so that they can convey to all Ca-
shelved the plans for a French-lan-
guage university. We have seen a
importance to the linguistic nadians the essential role that our
slight decline in bilingualism among majorities. Canadians need two languages play in our identity,
Anglophones. to feel that our two official in the Canadian idea: that is to say,
in our history, in our literature, in
A columnist in The Economist wrote languages belong to all of
our films, in our music, in our televi-
recently that “Canadian politicians us—whether or not we sion, in our welcoming of newcom-
are usually bilingual as a matter of speak them. ers, in our presentation of ourselves
course.” If only that were true. It is to the world, and in our creation of
true that bilingualism is a defining a unique North American society, to-
qualification for political party lead- day and in the future.
ership, but many Canadian politi-
cians do not meet that requirement. Graham Fraser is the former
C
anada’s official languages, and Commissioner of Official Languages,
We have seen a continuing series of serving from 2006-16. A former Ottawa
the policies that support them,
Action Plans for Official Languag- bureau chief of The Globe and Mail, he
need to be understood and
es—which were renamed Roadmaps was also a correspondent of Maclean’s,
promoted for their importance to
by the Conservatives. These have in- the Toronto Star and the Montreal
the linguistic majorities. Canadians
volved millions of dollars being di- Gazette. He is the author of several
need to feel that our two official lan-
rected towards minority language national bestsellers, including PQ: René
guages belong to all of us—whether
communities, and French Second Lévesque and the Parti Québécois
or not we speak them.
Language learning. It is a proof of in Power, and Sorry, I Don’t Speak
their success that they have survived This insight occurred to me when I French: Confronting the Canadian
two changes of government. heard Professor Jennifer Rattray of Crisis that Won’t Go Away.
Policy13
From My Parents’ Homeland
to My Own
As a journalist and then a polling executive at the An- der official multiculturalism. When
you’re little, you’re not alive to the
gus Reid Institute, Shachi Kurl has explored the questions importance of it. You just know that
around immigration and its role in the Canadian expe- you’re in a school full of kids whose
rience and identity. As the Canadian-born daughter of parents—or who they themselves—
were born in other parts of the world.
immigrants herself, Kurl understands how emotional the We ate different foods. On special oc-
issue can be. And, especially during an election year at a casions, we wore different clothes.
time when immigration has become a loaded issue across They brought the RCMP in to pose
with us. It made for a sweet tableau,
Western democracies, just how politicized it can get. but having kids in a school mostly
populated by the children of immi-
grants put on “ethnic dress” and smile
Shachi Kurl with a police officer wasn’t just bro-
A
mide, it was crucial to trying to build
trust in a law enforcement institution
llergies. Specifically, a violent
that often suffers from a lack of it, par-
allergy to ragweed.
ticularly among visible minorities.
We’ve come to expect the origin sto- Other facets of multiculturalism pol-
ries of Canadian immigrants to be icy led to classroom discussions and
more romantic, or dramatic. Flight events that exposed us to cultures be-
from conflict. First steps into a new yond those of the so-called founding
culture. Canada as a deliberate desti- nations, French and English.
nation, a conscious choice.
Just as Francophones took a sense of
For my parents, it was an accidental meaning, belonging and long-sought
affection. By the time they drove up equality from official bilingualism,
to the Peace Arch border crossing be- multiculturalism policy has helped
tween Washington state and British solidify a sense of place in the cen-
Columbia, they had already lived in tre of society, not on the margins, for
the United Kingdom and the United visible minorities. It provided a sense
States, having emigrated from India. of parity.
B
But the American dream was not to
y design, the decades have re-
be for my father. His teaching options
vealed Canada to be successful
limited him to universities in the Mid-
in the way newcomers settle
west, which limited him to terrible
in this country. Employment rates
health due to hay fever. So, he and my
among people born outside Canada
mother packed up their lives, (includ-
are higher than many other Organ-
ing their most precious possession,
isation for Economic Cooperation
my sister) and set off for Vancouver.
and Development (OECD) nations.
The beauty of the Coast Mountains Due to the points system, two-thirds
was a strong selling point, the salty of Canada’s foreign-born adults have
crispness of fresh marine air wafting completed post-secondary education,
from the Pacific Ocean sealed the deal. notably higher than the rate for Ca-
My story of Canada is one of a choice nadian-born adults and significantly
made for me. I was among the first Shachi Kurl, then a 7-year old daughter of
higher than the foreign-born rate for
generations of Canadian-born chil- immigrants from India, with an RCMP member all other OECD countries.
at a community event in Vancouver. Photo
dren of immigrants educated un- courtesy Shachi Kurl. These outcomes beget financial suc-
July/August 201914
cess. In Vancouver, the country’s most to the debate over immigration, even accepted, and under which timelines.
expensive housing market, the av- during times of support for accep- What we may have forgotten was the
erage assessment value of single de- tance of more newcomers. So, it can’t new Liberal government’s initial in-
tached homes owned by immigrants explain everything. Instead, I would sistence that 25,000 Syrians would
is nearly 20 per cent higher than the suggest two key occurrences that be resettled within less than two
average assessment of single-detached straddled the Trudeau government’s months. Much concern and criticism
homes owned by Canadian-born res- mandate, and the political reactions over seemingly impossible timelines
idents. In broad terms, most immi- to them, are more likely responsible over security and vetting ensued. At
grants to this country are educated, for this unenthusiastic response to the time, Angus Reid Institute polling
working, and doing well financially. more immigration. showed half of those Canadians who
And yet, for the first time in more The first was the resettlement of Syri- said they were opposed to resettle-
than two decades, public opinion an refugees, the second, the arrival of ment pointed specifically to the time-
polling shows Canadians would pre- thousands of people claiming asylum lines as the reason why.
fer to see fewer, not more immigrants at undesignated border crossings. In response, then-Liberal Premier
come to Canada. This feeling has In the fall of 2015, public opinion was Kathleen Wynne’s suggested such
spiked dramatically in recent years: overwhelmingly of the view that this concerns “… allows [sic] us to tap
S
country had a role to play in mitigat- into that racist vein when that isn’t
o, what’s happening? To start,
ing the human tragedy unfolding in who we are.”
not everyone may be comfort-
the mass migrations from the Mid- Whether the federal government gave
able with what is literally the
dle East and North Africa. But until into the tapping of a ‘racist vein’, or
“changing face” of our nation. Con-
the drowned body of Alan Kurdi—the whether bureaucrats convinced their
sider that 2016 census data shows us
three-year-old boy whose aunt was political masters the timelines were
the number of visible minorities in
so desperately trying to get him and indeed, too tight, the settlement date
this country now roughly equal to the
his family to sanctuary in Canada— was extended.
number of people in Quebec. By 2036,
washed ashore in Turkey, public opin-
Statistics Canada projects immigrants Wynne’s comments would not be
ion was also divided over whether
will make up more than one-third the only example of political rheto-
people fleeing Bashar Al-Assad’s bru-
of the total population. Perhaps it is ric took precedence over an impor-
tal regime should be resettled here—
not wholly surprising then, that two- tant opportunity to communicate to
and if so—how many? That began an
thirds in this country when polled said Canadians about the country’s immi-
election campaign bidding war that
newcomers need to do more to “fit in”. gration policies.
saw each of the main party leaders—
Still, conversations of assimilation Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau and For the second time, a politician
and integration have been the per- Thomas Mulcair—up the ante over squandered a critical opportunity to
petual undercurrent flowing parallel the number of refugees who would be strike a careful balance in response,
Chart 1: Should Immigration Levels Increase or Decrease. 1975–2018
350000
300000 48% 48%
46% 45% 49%
43% 44% 42%
250000
42% 42%
200000 39% 41%
36% 31%
32% 33%
150000
18% 17%
100000 12%
10% 9% 9% 9%
50000
6%
0
1975 1980 1987 1990 1995 2000 2014 2018
INCREASE STAY THE SAME DECREASE IMMIGRATION TOTAL
Source: Angus Reid Institute
Policy15
instead going for the feel-good fac- I recognize this gift a relative who is already in the coun-
tor that may ultimately have done try as a permanent resident or citizen,
when I board flights
more damage to the immigration de- account for 28 per cent of the total.
bate overall. In January 2017, Prime home to Vancouver and give
The rest (57 per cent) are economic
Minister Trudeau tweeted, “To those thanks that I am a woman class immigrants, those who come
fleeing persecution, terror & war, Ca- living in Canada, free from fill jobs. You probably wouldn’t
nadians will welcome you, regardless much of the societal, cultural know this based on the conversa-
of your faith. Diversity is our strength
#WelcomeToCanada”
and official repression, tions about immigration today. And
harassment and barriers to yet, we need work-ready newcomers
But what came to national atten- to hold up our tax base, to fill labour
tion as something of a curiosity— economic upward mobility shortages. To pay for the nice things
and for many a representation of the faced by so many of my sex we like to have in this country, such
“best of Canada”—later gave way around the world. as health care and pensions and tran-
to pointed questions about how of- sit. We’re neither having enough ba-
ficials planned to deal with the tens bies nor building enough robots to
of thousands who would later arrive, do that without our immigrants.
seeking to make a home on this side
Can we absorb more newcomers of all
W
of the 49th parallel. hat has been the impact of classes into our nation? Arguably yes.
By September of 2017, slightly more these two narratives on Do our leaders need to make a stron-
than half of Canadians said the coun- our views towards immi- ger case for them? Very much so.
try has been “too generous” to the gration overall? Consider the potential
W
border crossers, more than eight times damage that has been wrought by ide- e can no more take for gran-
as many as those who said Canada ological reactions that failed, at least ted a perpetual approval in
hasn’t been “generous enough”. By initially, to acknowledge or straight- public opinion of more im-
August 2018, following another sum- forwardly address the expressed anxi- migrants any more than I can take for
mer of asylum-seeking arrivals, two- eties of Canadians. I would posit that granted the gift my parents bestowed
thirds were calling the situation a “cri- it has also had the effect of obscuring upon me to make this my home. I rec-
sis”, and the country was having to important differences over the kind of ognize this gift when I board flights
grapple with uncomfortable questions immigrants we mostly accept. home to Vancouver and give thanks
about how welcoming we really are. In 2018, the refugee and humanitar- that I am a woman living in Canada,
Wynne’s comments would not be ian class accounted for just 15 per free from much of the societal, cul-
the only example of political rheto- cent of the number of permanent tural and official repression, harass-
ric took precedence over an impor- residents accepted into Canada— ment and barriers to economic up-
tant opportunity to communicate to and did not include those who had ward mobility faced by so many of my
Canadians about the country’s immi- crossed the border irregularly. Family sex around the world. I feel it when we
gration policies. class immigrants, those sponsored by raise the flag on July 1 and marvel at
the relative ease with which we live;
no war, little corruption, a civil society
Chart 2: Canadian Views on Irregular Border Crossings that functions the way its supposed to.
We have a gift to bestow upon those
who don’t have these things. We also
have a responsibility to ensure our
quality of life is maintained by en-
This situation is NOT
a crisis—the situation suring our workforce remains robust
is being overblown and skilled. Immigration is the key to
33% by politicians and
the media.
both. We need to be more rationally,
more frequently, and more emphati-
cally reminded of this.
67% This situation is a
crisis—Canada’s
Shachi Kurl is Executive Director of the
ability to handle the Angus Reid Foundation, a national not-
situation is at a limit. for-profit polling and public opinion
research firm based in Vancouver. A
former journalist, she writes a column
in the Ottawa Citizen and is a frequent
guest on broadcast panels such as At
Issue on CBC’s The National.
Source: Angus Reid Institute
July/August 201916
“On a train, the scenery beckons,” writes Elizabeth May, enjoying the VIA ride with her new husband John Kidder. “I still like to take the train as much
as possible,” adds the Leader of the Green Party. Photo courtesy Elizabeth May
Big Country, Small World
Between being naturally sociable and being the leader Elizabeth May
A
of Canada’s Green Party for the past 13 years, Eliza- lmost everywhere I go in Can-
beth May has likely met more Canadians than any other ada, people say, “In this com-
munity, we have at most two
currently-serving politician in the country. Her notion of
degrees of separation—maybe one!”
the Canadian idea has been formed by her engagement Whether in London, Ontario, or Hal-
with so many people and informed by her travel to every ifax, Nova Scotia, or Victoria, B.C.,
locals feel their community is ex-
corner of this vast country, especially by train.“Canada ceptional for the degree of closeness.
is not authentically located in our large claims of ‘super- In my experience, all of us are that
cluster’ this and ‘superpower’ that,” May writes. “Cana- close—from coast to coast to coast.
da is found in our daily small kindnesses.” I accept the statistics—we are a pop-
ulation of over 35 million. It is sim-
Policy17
ply not possible that we all know I still try to take the train as much as possible.
each other so well. But, in the same
way that I know the earth is round
Honestly, I do not think anyone who has not seen
and orbits the sun, it doesn’t feel like the country by rail—or at least by leisurely road trip—can
that. It feels flat. And Canada feels claim to have seen it at all.
like a village.
Never more so than one day in Par-
liament last fall when I told Justin
Trudeau that my new love, John
Kidder, was Margot Kidder’s broth- pool by the hour with the then-head try by rail—or at least by leisurely
er. Public Services Minister Carla of the Newfoundland Sealers Associa- road trip—can claim to have seen it
Qualtrough, overhearing Justin’s tion, Wilf Bartlett. at all.
affectionate response about how
A
I know our airports equally well. To
many fond memories he had of the nother treasured memory was
my horror, I can close my eyes and
late actress, asked what we were of the time a freak early win-
describe the floor plans of every Air
talking about. ter storm left my mum, me
Canada lounge in all our larger air-
and my toddler daughter cozily en-
I replied, “Just that the new man in ports, and I also know the ones too
sconced on a picture-perfect farm
my life is the older brother of Jus- small to have lounges. Our airports
outside of Lunenburg NS, for a glo-
tin’s father’s old girlfriend.” Carla re- are efficient and well managed, in-
rious two days. Years later, blizzard
marked that it was a pretty big co- creasingly overflowing with luxury
conditions led to the derailment of a
incidence. Justin replied, “It’s a very shopping, creature comforts and tiny
freight train outside of Trois-Rivières,
small country.” way stations for the harried frequent
stranding my daughter and me plus
flier. But let’s face it: the experience
On the other hand, man oh man, are 800 VIA Rail passengers miles from
is one of sameness. A traveler could
we BIG! I remember taking the train anywhere. The valiant VIA crew had be almost anywhere. And once in the
from Ottawa to Halifax around 1995 food delivered by skidoo to an in- air, you are aloft and aloof. What riv-
with a dear friend and fellow activist creasingly exhausted crew of cooks er winds beneath the plane, if you
from Nigeria. After dinner in Mon- and VIA staff who managed to do should be so lucky to have a clear sky
treal in the dining car, and breakfast their best. I remember it for the time and a window seat view, is rarely a
crossing the Miramichi River in New spent chatting with other passen- question pondered.
Brunswick, we sat down for lunch in gers, organizing impromptu play
O
the dining car outside Moncton and groups for the several little girls on n a train, the scenery beck-
he exclaimed, with those gorgeous board around my daughter’s age. ons. One’s eyes are peeled for
melodic Nigerian cadences, “And we a moose in that wooded
are steel in the same countreee!” wetland, or a bear gorging on sum-
On a train, the mer berries along the siding. And
I am lucky to have had decades of
scenery beckons. even the most familiar route chang-
travel across Canada. When I was
executive director of Sierra Club of One’s eyes are peeled for a es with the quality of the light, the
season, and the rain, mist, snow,
Canada, I frequently crisscrossed the moose in that wooded
hail or bright sun. Toronto to Otta-
country by train, bus, ferry and plane wetland, or a bear gorging wa and the stretch on the Lake On-
to connect with our vast network of on summer berries along the tario shoreline is never the same. It is
volunteers. I avoid hotels and stay
with friends and supporters. There siding. And even the most eternally new.
is almost no little corner of Cana- familiar route changes with Air travel is isolating. Train travel
da that is unknown to me. In most the quality of the light, the builds community. Train travel in-
of Canada, I already know where my season, and the rain, mist, vites conversation.
bedroom is in the friendly home of
someone willing to host me.
snow, hail or bright sun. For our Christmas in 2016, my
daughter and I decided to avoid the
I have been “storm-stayed”—tempo- complications of family (divorces
rarily stranded by weather and trans- and estrangements) and take VIA Rail
port delays—almost everywhere. I leaving Vancouver December 23rd,
loved being stuck on Fogo Island arriving in Toronto December 28th.
when the car ferry needed an ice I still try to take the train as much
breaker to get back to the main is- as possible. Honestly, I do not think We took a bedroom, with bunk beds
land, and none was available. I played anyone who has not seen the coun- and a private bath—all meals includ-
July/August 201918
ed. We packed our Scrabble board live. Instead of arriving by 5 pm as closed winter highway to get her
and our favourite traditional Christ- scheduled, she was now disembark- home for Christmas.
mas movies, and put the new puppy ing in Rivers, Manitoba after 10 pm
(a surprise complication for the trip) on Christmas day. The only hotel in On that train on Christmas Eve, in
in the baggage car. At every stop with Rivers closed a few years ago, there the pitch darkness, we sat in the
enough time to get the puppy out would be no open restaurants or dome car looking up at the stars.
of her crate and out into the snow, stores. I had no idea what she would Miles from any discernible settle-
we made the trek back through to do if her car battery had died. ment, up ahead, we saw a small
over 24 cars, through sleeper cars And neither did she. I was so wor- shack, incongruously festooned with
and economy, to get to the baggage ried about her, I gave her my email— Christmas lights. And just outside, a
and the puppy. The first stop, along but without any reliable internet on well-bundled older man held aloft
the siding in Kamloops, was a pret- a train, I am not sure what I thought a bright lantern, which he swung
ty large shock for a Vancouver Is- I could do to help. with enthusiasm and appeared to be
land dog who had not experienced shouting “Merry Christmas!”
the feeling of suddenly becoming a It was not until I got to Toronto that
fluffy popsicle. I received her email. Sure enough, If you want to know Canada, get
once she unearthed her car from out of the cities. Get past our urban
We met people throughout the train. the mountain of snow, it did not temples to air travel and out on the
Although, due to poorly accumulat- start. She was alone on a deserted road. Find the policemen who res-
ed statistics (based on filling out cus- street in a howling winter storm. A cue grandmothers. The farmers who
tomer surveys in the seat pockets man came out of nowhere, spotted pitch in when the neighbour’s barn
and primarily left in the bedrooms her and told her he would phone has burned down. And in the cities,
of better-heeled travelers), VIA does the Rivers police to come help her. talk to the volunteers in the soup
not have the data to prove it, many Sure enough, the young constable kitchens and food banks. Find the
Canadians still take the train as a showed up and got out his jump- Indigenous woman who teaches the
practical and affordable way to get er cables to start up the car. But he ways of the past in a local Winnipeg
from A to B. For seniors and fami- warned her sternly that the high- community garden (like being able
lies with young children, the VIA way was closed. He told her to fol- to access Jerusalem artichokes under
discounts make it cheaper than air low him. And so she was instructed the snow, below a trap door and nes-
for those in economy. The chairs to leave her car parked in the police tled in hay).
(called “day-nighters”) are well de- station parking lot where it would
signed to recline substantially. The be safe until she could get back to Canada is not authentically located
sleeping people in the economy car
pick it up. in our large claims of “super-cluster”
barely stir at the occasional stop, let-
this and “super-power” that. Canada
ting people out to the small stations
is found in our daily small kindness-
found in places like Ashcroft, B.C.,
Armstrong, Ontario and Melville,
If you want to know es. Canada is the residents of south
Saskatchewan. With only one VIA Canada, get out of shore Nova Scotia who poured out to
the frigid morning when Sikh refu-
trip every four days, and with the the cities. Get past our
gees blundered ashore to find them-
collapse of much of Canada’s bus urban temples to air travel selves wrapped in blankets and giv-
service, VIA economy is now serious-
ly overcrowded and at risk of becom-
and out on the road. Find en strong tea. Canada is the first
ing unpleasant. the policemen who rescue responders who never left their posts
grandmothers. The farmers in Fort McMurray as the fire raged
O
around them.
n that Christmas trip, in who pitch in when the
our walks back through an neighbour’s barn has Canada may not be perfect, but we
already crowded economy
car, we got to know Nancy, a love- burned down. are a people who know that through
love and faith, we are perfectable.
ly woman from rural Manitoba who
had left her car parked in Rivers two At least, that’s what I see from the
weeks before. A fierce winter bliz- window of the train.
zard howled and our train, having
been repeatedly shunted to the sid- Elizabeth May, MP, is the Leader of the
ings by the CN right-of-way system, And then, that wonderful young Green Party of Canada, and an inveter-
was increasingly late. I was worried constable put all her luggage in his ate rider of Canada’s passenger trains.
as our new friend was older than police car, installed her in the front
me, had a car on a dark and freezing seat, and putting on all his lights,
street in a town in which she did not drove at a snail’s pace down the
Policy19
The Canadian Idea Hinges on
a Promise Fulfilled
As a woman of Mi’kmaq ancestry who grew up as a program and received the designa-
tion of registered industrial accoun-
miner’s daughter in Labrador, Vianne Timmons never tant. Her hard work and dedication
dreamed she’d end up as the president of a Canadian to her studies opened our eyes to a
university—for more than a decade. A passionate cham- world that we had not previously
imagined for ourselves.
pion of Indigenous empowerment, Timmons argues that
C
education is the key to making the Canadian idea of op- ould this happen today? Is the
portunity for all a reality for all. Canadian dream still avail-
able to children whose par-
ents are not well-off financially? I
do believe it is for many, but I wor-
ry about the ones who are being left
Vianne Timmons behind.
A
s a young child growing up in In my job as a university president,
Canada, you can take a lot of I have the privilege of travelling in
things for granted. northern Canada. When I am there, it
lifts my soul. When you have grown
For the most part, Canadian children
up in the North, it becomes part of
have access to decent public schools,
your DNA. The air smells crisper, the
quality, publicly funded health care,
colours are more vivid, and the space
structured recreational opportunities,
is endless. Paradoxically, in many of
and nutritious food. Like many peo-
these beautiful northern communi-
ple, I took all of these things for grant-
ties the challenges that exist are dark,
ed when I was growing up in Labra-
stark and daunting. There is little em-
dor. There were six children in my
ployment, and sometimes the sense
family, very close in age. We all loved
of despair is almost palpable. I have
school, and we were all involved in
seen little girls in communities like
sports. My father was a miner, so we
Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, who remind
didn’t have much as a family, but we
me of myself as a child—but in far
had freedom, a great childhood, and
more challenging circumstances. Sit-
a good quality of life. I often say that,
Vianne Timmons, 6, as a schoolgirl in Labrador. uations like this make me realize that
in many ways, I embody the Cana- “We had freedom, a great childhood, and a
if we are to see the Canadian dream
dian dream. good quality of life,” she writes today. Photo
courtesy of Vianne Timmons continue—or at least remain a possi-
These days, I think a great deal about bility—for everyone, we must ensure
what it means to be Canadian, and I that our children born in the north
can’t help but wonder if newcomers ident. The fact is that, growing up, I have the same sort of opportunities
to Canada will have the same oppor- knew no one in my family who had my family and I had.
tunities I had—and that same oppor- even attended university. My moth-
er knew she would have to do some- In Yoni Appelbaum’s November
tunity to live the Canadian dream.
thing extraordinary to ensure we all 2017 article in The Atlantic titled Is
My parents sacrificed a lot so that
could get a post-secondary educa- the American Idea Doomed?, he dis-
all six of us could attend university.
tion. Pregnant with her sixth child, cusses the view that younger Amer-
Their selflessness provided all of us
she enrolled in a correspondence pro- icans have lost faith in an America
with a life in which we all had great
gram offered by Queen’s University. that is not delivering on its promise
careers and lots of opportunities.
To this day I have vivid memories of opportunity. He writes about the
I could not have imagined that one of my mother studying while we did United States in this article, but there
day I would serve as a university pres- our homework. She completed her is a clear message for Canada as well.
July/August 2019You can also read
