Can-Challenge: Melting pot in Canada.

Perhaps more British immigration to Canada from the start so the French speakers are drowned out and forced to use one language.

The fact that Canada has both French and English as official languages means that two different cultures are already implanted at the start of the nation. It is difficult for Canada to demand assimilation if assimilation is different for different regions. The French Canadians get to keep their culture extensively so any new immigrants should as well, yes? I think that's why Canada is more multicultural than melting pot.
 
If I'm not mistaken, Toronto is currently the most culturly diverse city on the planet, making Canada more of a melting pot than the United States in OTL
 
Other than the Quebec issue, I'd say Canada certainly is as much of a melting pot as the U.S., if not even more in some ways.
 
Other than the Quebec issue, I'd say Canada certainly is as much of a melting pot as the U.S., if not even more in some ways.

I thought Canada was multicultural? I mean I remember a few years ago during the Lebanese-Israeli conflict there was a large Lebanese nationalist demonstration in Canada.
 
Canada has an ethnically diverse population, especially in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. In Quebec loi 101 forces immigrants from outside Canada into the French school system. Right now anglos and allophones (whose first language isn't English or French) outnumber Francophones on Montreal Island. That causes alarm among the usual suspects :rolleyes:, but since most anglos and immigrants speak/learn French anyways (loi 101's only positive, IMHO) it doesn't really matter.
 
Canada is already one of the most multicultural nations on Earth, but what I think the OP had in mind was have all of these different cultures melt into one "Canadian" culture, rather than dividing themselves up by ethnicity as is common in a number of Canadian cities in modern times.

As for Trudeau - please don't get me started on that guy. PLEASE.
 
I thought Canada was multicultural? I mean I remember a few years ago during the Lebanese-Israeli conflict there was a large Lebanese nationalist demonstration in Canada.

I don't understand, are you saying "multicultural" as if it were in contrast to "melting pot"?
 
I don't understand, are you saying "multicultural" as if it were in contrast to "melting pot"?

They do mean different things in Canadian usage. In Canada a common saying goes that "America is a melting pot but Canada is a mosaic." It refers to the way that both countries are supposed to be welcoming of people of all different backgrounds but that in America the expectation is that everyone should assimilate into the one dominant American culture whereas in Canada the ideal is to integrate different cultures and allow people to live as one society but still retain their own cultural traditions as well. If you've ever been to Toronto, Ontario or the Vancouver area in B.C. you'll see that there's a lot more signs of different cultures then there is in American cities. I remember once I saw a George Bush speech on the news and when talking about immigrants he was saying how they should be assimilated and I found that pretty surprising. In Canada, especially in places like B.C, if a politician implied that immigrants should feel obligated to culturally assimilate he'd be in trouble.
 
I don't understand, are you saying "multicultural" as if it were in contrast to "melting pot"?

Yes.

It implies that certain cultural usages are continued by immigrants and cultural assimilation is not expected as opposed to a "melting pot" in a Henry Ford sense.

In practice, it's all down to the relative sizes of the immigrant communities, though.
 
Yes.

It implies that certain cultural usages are continued by immigrants and cultural assimilation is not expected as opposed to a "melting pot" in a Henry Ford sense.

In practice, it's all down to the relative sizes of the immigrant communities, though.
Somewhat true. I've lived in rural Ontario with quite possibly 1-2 non-European-descended families (lots of Scottish, French, and Irish-descended people, though).

While pressure was there for the non-European families to adopt the surrounding culture, they somehow maintained a balance of adoption and keeping their own culture (this was the kids, mind you, not the adults). It was pretty strange, actually.
 
Hard to do. Canada never accepted the American melting pot or the hardline French variation. That said we didn't drift over into multiculturalism until the '70s so I suppose we could drift towards the melting pot instead.

You can't do it with Trudeau or any of the Tory leaders of the time that I can think of though (Trudeau went multicultural, the Tories were mosaic supporters, the NDP were probably split between the two) so you'd need some particular political figure to bring this about.

Canada is already one of the most multicultural nations on Earth, but what I think the OP had in mind was have all of these different cultures melt into one "Canadian" culture, rather than dividing themselves up by ethnicity as is common in a number of Canadian cities in modern times.

As for Trudeau - please don't get me started on that guy. PLEASE.

Well, roughly speaking, that sort of was the pre-Trudeau immigration pattern. It was, as mentioned, more of a mosaic—immigrants added their culture to their community but also generally adopted existing culture.

Post-Trudeau it's more multicultural in that a number of immigrant communities refuse to adopt Canadian culture and in fact bring court cases so that they use their own cultural law in their communities. That's something of a problem in the broader sense, but it does make for exciting and diverse cities.

Unless you're a Liberal Party stalwart pretty much every Canadian on these boards hates Trudeau since most of are various forms of conservatives or social democrats (and Trudeau screwed them just as badly as he screwed Canada—at least the prairie NDP knows how to balance a budget).

(Which part do you object to: $300 billion in debt for social programs that didn't wind up working instead of adopting smarter social programs that would have helped like paid parental leave, the destruction of the civil service and (especially) External Affairs, the weird and pointless imposition of the French language when it made no sense (air traffic controllers), the obviously doomed to failure NEP, the preventing better people like Stanfield or even Clark (though sure, he can't count) being PM, the switch from peacemaking to peacekeeping, the run-down of the Canadian military from useful in peacemaking situations to basically useless in any situation, the cuddling up to left-wing dictators, etc…. Frankly there's so much to object to from a left or right wing frame that it's hard to keep track.)

Somewhat true. I've lived in rural Ontario with quite possibly 1-2 non-European-descended families (lots of Scottish, French, and Irish-descended people, though).

While pressure was there for the non-European families to adopt the surrounding culture, they somehow maintained a balance of adoption and keeping their own culture (this was the kids, mind you, not the adults). It was pretty strange, actually.

What he said. That was the pre-Trudeau standard country-wide although the immigrant's culture also bled out into their communities (the Eastern European settled prairies for example). Post-Trudeau (primarily in the cities) it became groups of independent culturally distinct immigrants and lots of them refused to adopt any aspects of Canadian culture, including sometimes even the language.
 

DAMIENEVIL

Banned
You could have it happen if a stupid english politician had not said basically that the french language is dying out in Canada without this there is no quiet revolution which means there is no PQ and which causes a whole alot of crap that happens
 
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