Wheat from the Chaff Blog

On Aug. 25th, a short letter I wrote to writer Daniel Stoffman was used at the beginning of his Globe and Mail question and answer session on multiculturalism. In response to his earlier article, I made the simple point that multiculturalism is not as central to the Canadian fabric as some people believe because there are other, more fundamental values at play.

Stoffman’s basic thesis is that Canada is not truly multicultural, even if it appears to be a commonly held perspective of politicians and journalists. Stoffman hedges his bets when it comes evaluating his own conclusions, though he does imply that it’s probably best for Canada to accept diversity rather than true multiculturalism – which he regards as a rather radical policy if taken to its logical conclusion. I’m not sure I share his rather extreme conception of multiculturalism, but I do agree that we overestimate its importance – however it is conceived – in our political culture.