The 150th anniversary of Confederation this year should be more than an occasion for self-congratulatory celebrations and parties. It should also be a time to reflect on some of the enduring themes which have shaped the nation we have become and are becoming. One of those themes- the role of ethnic and religious diversity in Canada- was brought forcefully to the attention of Canadians by the slaying of six Muslims at a mosque in Quebec City on January 29. On March 23 the House of Commons responded to this horrific crime by giving second reading to M-103, a private member’s motion condemning Islamophobia.
In February 1865, during the debate on Confederation in the legislature of the Province of Canada, George-Etienne Cartier also wrestled with the issue of diversity and Canadian nationality. In Europe the rise of ethnic nationalism had recently led to the formation of the modern states of Italy and Germany. Cartier challenged those who argued, based on these examples, that the Confederation project could not succeed “because Lower Canada was in great part French and Catholic, and Upper Canada was British and Protestant and the Lower Provinces were mixed.” On the contrary, he asserted, the diverse ethnic and religious communities in the new nation were potentially a source of strength rather than a weakness.
The Canadian nationality he envisioned would be “a political nationality with which neither the national origin, nor the religion of any individual, would interfere.” It would be a nationality based not on common blood or common worship, but on common institutions of representative and responsible government, legal traditions inherited from the United Kingdom and France and the inheritance of a vast geographic domain. This would be a common enterprise to which all racial and religious communities could contribute drawing from the best elements of their heritages. “I view the diversity of races in British North America in this way:” Cartier said. “We are of different races, not for the purpose of warring against each other, but in order to compete and emulate for the general welfare…We are placed like great families beside each other, and our contact produces a healthy spirit of emulation. It is a benefit rather than otherwise that we have a diversity of races.” The diverse communities represented in the new nation would compete, not for supremacy, but to show what each could contribute to the building of a distinct new nation.
Cartier did not mention indigenous Canadians in this passage. But respect for their languages and cultures and confidence in what they could contribute to this emerging Canadian political nationality is implicit in the ideal he described. Today’s Canada, with large numbers of citizens from almost every nationality and religious tradition on the globe, comes closer to meeting Cartier’s vision than at any time in our history.
But, as the recent event in Quebec City reminds us, our progress towards that ideal has been neither uninterrupted nor irreversible. Too often we have warred against each other on the basis of race and religion. Too often we have attempted to impose cultural uniformity on indigenous Canadians. In both World Wars of the last century we interned long-time residents of this country and seized their property based on their national origin rather than their personal conduct. A referendum seeking a mandate to negotiate the dissolution of Canada to carve out from it a majority French- Canadian nation was only narrowly defeated as recently as 1995.
Just as citizens of the United States of America pledge allegiance to their flag as representing the ideal rather than the actual republic- “one nation, indivisible, under God, with liberty and justice for all” so Cartier’s vision of the Canada of the future remains an ideal as yet unattained but always demanding our “true patriot love.” Let 2017 be a year when each Canadian, regardless of our religious beliefs or how long we and our ancestors have been here or where they came from originally, accept Cartier’s challenge to uphold and contribute to the achievement of the new nationality he envisioned 152 years ago.