The Modest Triumph of the Cultural Mosaic

[bibliogramma]

Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Pluralism, Michael Adams

In the interests of full disclosure, I must begin my comments with the observation that this book was written by my boss. It's his fifth book, and like his previous ones, it is based on research that the company he founded, Environics Research Group, has conducted into social values going back decades in Canada and the U.S. Each year in Canada, and every four years in the U.S, we poll a representative sample of peple to determine their values about all sorts of social issues. We have reseach partners in other countries who do the same kind of reseach in other countries around the world, and we all share this informaition, building up a database of global trends in social values and attitudes.

I'm not going to talk about the research in detail, because it is proprietary, but we track how much people agree or disagree with statements like "The father should be the master in the home" - one of the questions that Adams likes to use in his public speaking engagements and see how the percentages who agree or disagree change over time.

This particular book analyses some of that research, and some other research we have done over the years tracking issues associated with immigration, multi-culturalism, and a major study done earlier this year with two samples - one of Canadians in general and one of Canadian Muslims.

I think I'll leave the summary of this research up to the author himself. Here's an excerpt from the book that was printed earlier this fall in The Toronto Star, and the short version is that the research shows that, despite all the headlines about immigrant backlash and accommodation crises, we're not doing all that badly at this learning to live with each other despire our differences thing, and the odds are that we'll continue to manage to muddle along in our modest Canadian way. And that we will find every way possible to politely brag about it.

Comments

Re: Part One of My Response

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Our new PM Rudd has already clashed with your PM Harper over global warming.

And many of us cheered when Rudd did that, too. We hope that international embarassment will make the damned neo-cons we foolishly elected do something on the environment file.

I anticipate an election here sometime in the next six months. Harper has a minority governemnt, which will very shortly pass the two-year mark. Canadians tend to feel that once a minority government hits that mark, it's fair game, and we are less likely to be cranky with a party that brings it down in the House.

The Liberals lost the last election due to a major government scandal, but the Conservatives have had more than a few scandals of their own surface since then, and so neither party can now clothe itself in righteous indignation on that count. The new Liberal leader is not particularly charismatic, but he's very strong on the environment. Canada is doing well on the economic front, but it was also doing well when the Liberals were in power, so that's unlikely to be a factor for or against anyone.

It is my fervent hope that we will toss Harper out in the next election, and if we do, it will almost certainly be because of his stance on the environment.

Canadians don't like thinking that the world doesn't like us. And Harper and his minions made us a laughingstock in Bali. That is going to come back and bite the Conservatives in the ass.