2018 was a heated year for Canadian politics.
Canadians faced a variety of issues ranging from energy development to the renegotiation of our trade relationships with the U.S. and Mexico.
One issue that also came up was Quebec MP Maxime Bernier breaking away from the Conservatives to form the new People’s Party of Canada. Bernier partly based his actions on what he called the Trudeau Liberals’ devotion to “extreme multiculturalism” and the federal Conservatives’ unwillingness to oppose it.
Unfortunately, in an interview he gave with the CBC last September, Bernier’s attempts to explain what he meant by “extreme multiculturalism” were so pathetic they were either a tragedy or a farce, depending on your point of view.
There are real issues, but since Bernier can’t seem to explain them to save his life, I might as well give it a shot.
One of the biggest concerns many native-born Canadians have with so many people coming from so many different parts of the world is what exactly will unite us as a country. What languages will they be expected to use? How will our social conventions change? Will our school curricula need to be adapted? What kind of a common history will we have?
Many “ordinary” people who see changes in everything from cultural productions to school curricula to even the types of clothing people wear aren’t entirely sure what to make of them. In some cases, they might wonder whether we can celebrate our existing heritage, or if it’s only something to be condemned.
When people voice their concerns, they may worry about being attacked as racists or bigots. In the worst cases, white ethnic nationalists use people’s concerns to start actively recruiting as we’ve seen here, in the U.S. and Europe.
Native-born people still cherish their history and identity, and are worried about them as much as they’re worried about their livelihoods in a globalized world. The worst thing pro-immigrant leftists or pro-free trade rightists can do is blow off their concerns and attack them as racist or small-minded. When they do, they leave the door wide open for the far-right nationalists to latch onto people’s concerns. Answering people’s concerns more openly and vocally can be a way to cut off the white nationalists’ support.
But the discussion shouldn’t just be one-way.
Native-born Canadians should consider what kind of changes we can accept to make new immigrants feel welcome. We should also consider the rights and perspectives of the Indigenous people who never asked to be brutalized the way they were when Europeans colonized the continent.
Not to mention that many immigrants already work to learn English and/or French, use their talents to contribute to everything from our culture to the economy and can become as rabid hockey fans as anyone whose ancestors came here 200 years ago.
That type of back-and-forth, which has been such a critical but overlooked part of Canadian history, is something we will need more of not just in 2019, but for years to come.
Jared Milne is a St. Albert resident with a passion for Canadian history and politics.
