Canadian Symbolism Part 3: Who is a Real Canadian

The US election popularized the question: What is a real American? Now, somebody says that one of the "Canadian, Please" performers is not, and never will be, a "real Canadian". The simple fact is, you do not have to be born in Canada, or be white, to be a real Canadian. I don't even think you need to live in Canada or have a Canadian citizenship. Lots of American tourists slap a Canadian flag on their backpack to travel the world. Lots of Canadians live in the USA. I think anyone can be Canadian just by their beliefs. Kind of like religion: Accept Canada into your heart and you're Canadian! Just don't put a loaded gun in the backpack.

My grandchildren attend a public school in Waterloo where students have come from 40 different countries. No, it's not some UN sponsored experiment, it's just a regular neighbourhood primary school. Their residential neighbourhood is similarly mixed with people of different races and religions living side by side. No, I don't mean side by side in ghettos. I mean the neighbourhood is mixed randomly house by house, seemingly with no pattern at all of ethnicity. The one thing they all accept is multiculturalism, that is, the right of all people to live together in peace and security, without fear and hatred. It is the Canadian dream, not the American dream of wealth and power. The American dream may not be dead yet, but it is old and tarnished. The American dream is now just for the very few, with unlimited tax-free wealth, guns and gated communities. For the rest, foreclosed homes, shuttered factories, and health care beyond their means.

The video "Canadian, Please!" gives a clue. "Step one, lose the gun" "Step two, buy a canoe" "Step three, live multiculturally". Based on that three-step plan, plus demographics, we can project that by 2050, half the world could be Canadian. Even people who don't want to be Canadians, will be buying canoes as the waters rise due to global warming. When oil reaches $1000 per barrel, Hummers will be useful only as underwater reefs for the fish. The old planet Earth is over, where privileged people could keep others away who "look different", while wasting all the Earth's resources. The world is too crowded for war and racism. We will either all live multiculturally like Canada or we will all be strapping on suicide bombs like the rest. Eventually most people will opt for the former.

The great majority of Moslems want to move into the modern world, a small minority of religious extremists want to drag it back to the dark ages. This is also true in America, except the extremist religion in America is not Islam, it is a pro-war form of Christianity.

The dream of the modern world is changing. Forty years ago, America was the dream for the future. With George W. Bush, that dream died, and even Barack Obama cannot revive it. Now Canadian multiculturalism is becoming the preferred model for the future. The dream of Canada is kind of like what America was, but without the hate, without the world domination. Canada is the American dream, but more appealing, more multicultural, more realistic, less fearful, less belligerent, more cooperative, less ignorant, with fewer religious lunatics.

I can't prove that the future belongs to multiculturalism. But now Canada now has one of the world's highest rates of immigration. There is still a small chance the world may yet descend into the dark ages. But in the next fifty years, billions of people will be making choices about the kind of world they want to live in. Despite imperfections, Canada is an example that is available to all. Many people wish the whole world was made up of 192 Canadas instead of 191 other countries and only one Canada. But without the weather, of course.

There are people who don't even know they're Canadian. Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev. I would be happy if Jesus came back, and for his first trip sewed a Canadian flag on his backpack.

In the next fifty years, to echo the words of Mark Steyn "It's the end of the world as we know it". Except that it's not because the Islamic Jihadists are coming for us, it's the because Canada will show a better way to live together.