Choosing the direction of one’s culture

Motivational speakers never tire of repeating the mantra that the people with whom one associates are a reflection of one's aspirations. If you choose to spend your time in the company of individuals whose priorities are conducive to personal growth and financial or spiritual enhancement, then chances are you too will direct your energies in those directions. If you associate with individuals whose interests fall into dissolute or dishonest pursuits, then it's a good bet that's where your energies will go as well.

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A similar maxim holds true culturally, which is perhaps the strongest argument against officially encouraged multiculturalism that can be made. If you do not set standards within your own community and assume that all other communities are equal to your own, no matter what their standards are, then ultimately your own community will rise or fall, depending on the ethos of those other communities. That's probably multiculturalism's greatest drawback. As a nation Canadians have gotten so used to the idea that it's wrong to be judgmental, to establish any kind of moral, ethical or financial standards on those wishing to be admitted to this country that they meekly accept all the detritus that washes up on our shores. The very idea of questioning another culture's worthiness in relation to our own results in being accused of racism. A recent story in McLean's Magazine wondered if Canadians were a nation of bigots. Following the release of a poll conducted by the Montreal-based Institute for Research and Public Policy (IRPP), where the majority of those polled opposed full religious and cultural accommodation of newcomers. It appears that according to this poll, Canada's self-indulgent conceit about being the most tolerant country on earth has seriously frayed, as only 18% of respondents believe that it is reasonable to fully accommodate religious and cultural minorities. Moreover, a whopping 53% believed that immigrants should "adapt fully to culture in Canada". It would appear that the only people in Canada who still believe multiculturalism is good for the country are the government bureaucrats in charge of multiculturalism. That the bloom is off the multicultural rose isn't a surprise to anyone, except maybe to those few souls still clinging to the illusion that it is a good thing. Let's face it, after 36 years of official multiculturalism it's become quite obvious that no one benefits, least of all those that the multicult is intended to benefit most: newcomers. The stark reality of official multiculturalism in Canada is that it has concentrated large groups of hyphenated Canadians in a few small ghettos, mostly in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Interestingly the regions that according to the IRPP poll had the most accommodating attitudes towards immigrants were the regions within Canada that had the fewest immigrants, namely Atlantic Canada and the Prairies. Official multiculturalism has created a schism within Canada where numerous parallel cultures are managing an uneasy coexistence. What's more, the policy does more to encourage discord among different cultures and ethnicities in that assimilation is neither expected nor encouraged. Consequently many government services have to be made available in a plethora of languages, as large numbers of Canadians are not proficient in either of Canada's official languages. These problems were created as a result of decades of successive Canadian governments (largely Liberal) governing from the top down. Anyone opposed to the idea that official multiculturalism was beneficial to everyone was branded as a racist, a trick that many politicians enjoy using to this day. It's a bizarre assumption to consider someone a bigot just because he cares what kind of people live in his community. The fact that 53% of Canadians have voiced opposition to the trend of blanket accommodation of all religious and cultural minorities is a testament to Abraham Lincoln's admonition that you can't fool all of the people all of the time. It's time to be a lot pickier about who gets to come to Canada and to expect these newcomers to assimilate into the country's mainstream.