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Two Nations or One?

Strange as it may seem to newcomers, Canada's official national anthem is not that old! When the Baby Boomers were children, they sang God Save the Queen at official gatherings and The Maple Leaf Forever at the beginning of each school day. It was not until 1980 that O Canada was made our official national anthem.

The original version was created in French by Calixa Lavallee (the music) and Adolphe-Basile Routhier (the lyrics) in Quebec in 1880 and soon became very popular among French Canadians. It was not heard in English Canada until the early 1900s. There were several English translations, the most popular of which was that by Robert Stanley Weir in 1980, and it was his lyrics that most Canadians learned. When changes were made in 1980 for the official version, many Canadians got so confused that they stopped singing the anthem when it was played at official events.

The fact that there are both English and French versions of our national anthem is perhaps symbolic of a problem which has caused a great deal of anguish to citizens and politicians alike. That problem is the conflicting anglophone and francophone visions of Canada. Whereas many Quebecois clearly see themselves as a nation distinct from the other Canadian provinces and entitled to different rights and privileges, the further you get from Central Canada, the more you find the view that Quebec is simply a French-speaking province entitled to no more than the same rights and privileges as other Canadian provinces.

Our federal politicians, however, have done their utmost to promote a bilingual Canada in which anglophones and francophones come to know and understand one another better. Legislation must be printed in both languages. All federal government services must be available everywhere in Canada in both languages. Funds have been provided for students who want to participate in exchange programs where they can live and study in a community in which the other official language is spoken. Schools across the country have promoted bilingual education programs for students who want to become reasonably fluent in both languages. Quebec has gradually gained more control over various federal programs than other provinces have. As anyone who has travelled to Quebec will tell you, it is, in some ways, a different world.

Historically, there is no question that Canada was forged from two distinctly different nations: the English and the French. The French fought hard at the time of Confederation to gain those rights they saw as essential to their survival as a French-speaking nation within Canada. They have been fighting to keep those rights ever since.

Why are they still fighting after all this time? Well, there are other forces at work in the country that play a part in the issue. In the beginning the French and the English were the two predominant groups of settlers, but that very quickly changed after Confederation in 1867. Many Europeans saw Canada as a land of opportunity with inexpensive farms just waiting to be tilled and freedom to follow their own beliefs. The Chinese started to come with the building of the railroad and within a century, Canada had become one of the most truly multicultural nations in the world.

English and French may still be the official languages, but immigrants have been encouraged to maintain their own languages and to share their cultural understandings with their neighbours. Canada has had an official policy of multiculturalism for some years now. What that policy means is somewhat ambiguous, but at least there is an official recognition that we as Canadians value our multicultural heritage and want to somehow maintain the richness of that diversity.

Therefore Ukrainian families in Alberta, for example, may quite understandably ask why their children should learn French at school and why their taxes should be higher to cover the costs of printing everything in English and French. Likewise the French-speaking African immigrant in Quebec might ask a similar question. Why should his children learn English and why should his tax dollars be spent to print everything in English and French when Canada is multilingual and multicultural? Not everyone in Canada has the experience of knowing this country as a whole, of seeing the richness of our two-nation-in-one diversity. Not everyone supports official bilingualism.

Your will hear Canadians talking about Meech Lake. Meech Lake was the location of a very important meeting in 1987. At this meeting Canadian politicians under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, then Progressive Conservative prime minister, tried what many said was impossible. All of the provinces together with the federal government and representatives of the First Nations tried to introduce some changes to the Canadian constitution. These were mostly changes which gave more power to the provinces and less power to the federal government.

One proposed change was the recognition of Quebec as a distinct society. The changes, which were considered as a package rather than individually, needed 100% acceptance by all the provinces to be made law. In 1990, the province of Newfoundland and one politician in Manitoba, Elijah Harper, stood against the accord and it died, much to Quebec's frustration. Elijah Harper refused consent to debate the accord in Manitoba's legislature because it did not give the special status to Canada's aboriginal peoples that it gave to Quebec. Many Canadians see these dissenters as heroes, while others see them as traitors. We can be sure that everyone concerned struggled mightily with their decisions.

The defeat of the Meech Lake Accord was a blow to Quebeckers who had seen it as a way of further protecting their rights. While sovereignty association had been talked about in Quebec for years, it was given new life with the death of the Meech Lake Accord.

There was a further attempt at national agreement, primarily to appease Quebec, with the Charlottetown Accord in 1992. This accord was defeated in a national referendum. In 1991, the Bloc Quebecois was formed to represent Quebec's interests nationally in the federal government. It developed quickly under the leadership of Lucien Bouchard, a former cabinet minister in the Mulroney government. The Bloc won enough seats in the 1993 federal election to become the official Opposition party in the House of Commons. A separatist party in the national government seemed like a great irony to some Canadians.

In September of 1994, the Parti Quebecois, a separatist party under the leadership of Jacques Parizeau, was elected in Quebec. In 1995, Quebec held its own referendum asking its citizens to vote on sovereignty association. English Canadians watched nervously. Then, late in the campaign, a massive demonstration was held in Montreal. Individuals and groups from every province in the country hastily bought plane tickets and flew to lend their support to the No campaign. On the night of Monday, October 30, when the vote was taken, Canadians across the country sat in front of their TV screens anxiously awaiting the decision that could change their futures forever.

As the results came in from poll after poll, the vote teetered between the Yes and No sides. It was not until the very end that the No side secured one of the smallest majorities in election history. Many in the country heaved a sigh of relief. Politicians promised to find a solution that would satisfy Quebeckers without destroying the country as a whole. Many Quebecois, however, were determined to continue the battle for sovereignty. The Quebec sovereignty movement was further solidified when Lucien Bouchard left the leadership of the Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa to become the premier of Quebec. The question of Quebec sovereignty still hangs in the balance.

The Changing Ethnographics of Canada

The 1991 census of Canada indicated that the founding British and French groups are still the largest single ethnic groups in Canada, representing 28% and 23% of the population, respectively. An additional 18% of the population is made up of individuals of mixed British and French or British/French in combination with other ethnic backgrounds. However, close to a third (31%) of the population claim other ethnic backgrounds only. Increasing ethnic diversity in Canada, as represented in these other ethnic backgrounds, is largely attributable to changing patterns in origins of immigrants to Canada over the last few decades (Badets, 1989; Logan, 1991; Priest, 1990).

Despite relatively frequent changes in Canada's immigration policy over time, the percentage of the population made up of immigrants has remained relatively stable over the last few decades, with the current level being approximately 16% (Badets, 1989, 1993; Logan, 1991). What has changed, however, is the proportion of immigrants coming from different source countries. In the early part of this century, most immigrants to Canada came from European and North American source countries (Logan, 1991). Beginning in the early 1960s and continuing to the present, however, a major shift has occurred such that these source countries have been increasingly replaced by Asian and Middle Eastern, and to a lesser extent Caribbean, Central American, South American, and African countries (Badets, 1989, 1993; Logan, 1991). Thus, the birthplace of immigrants to Canada has expanded considerably.

According to the 1991 census of Canada (Badets, 1993), European-born immigrants still make up the largest percentage of immigrants living in Canada (54%), followed by those born in Asia and the Middle East (25%). However, if one looks at immigrants who have arrived since 1961, it is evident that the representation of European-borns has declined considerably. Whereas European-borns made up 90% of immigrants who arrived before 1961, they constituted only 25% of immigrants who arrived between 1981 and 1991 (Badets, 1993). In contrast, the percentage of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants to Canada has risen markedly. Whereas Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants comprised only 3% of immigrants who came to Canada before 1961, they made up 48% of immigrants who arrived between 1981 and 1991 (Badets, 1993). In fact, in a listing of the top 10 reported countries of birth for immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1981 and 1991, 6 countries fell into the Asian and Middle Eastern category: Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, India, Viet Nam, Philippines, and Lebanon (Badets, 1993).

As a result of these changes, the ethnic composition of Canada is becoming increasingly diverse. Of particular importance is the rise in the proportion of visible minorities, who, as we will describe shortly, may be especially likely to be the targets of prejudice and discrimination (Moreau, 1991; see also Berry & Kalin, 1995). Visible minorities, as designated in the Employment Equity Act of Canada, are "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour" (Employment and Immigration Canada, 1987, p. B-3). Ten groups are officially designated as visible minorities in Canada-Blacks, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Latin Americans, Other Pacific Islanders, Indo-Pakistanis (or South Asians), South East Asians, and West Asians and Arabs. In 1991, these visible minorities represented close to 10% of the adult population of Canada, double the 1981 percentage. The majority of these individuals were immigrants to Canada, with over a third having arrived between 1981-1991 (Kelly, 1995).

In the next 20 years, the representation of visible minorities in Canada is expected to continue to rise so that, by the year 2016, it is estimated that visible minorities will likely comprise close to 20% of the adult population and 25% of children (projections based on trends in migration, fertility, and mortality; Kelly, 1995; Statistics Canada, 1995b). In addition, within the population of visible minorities, the growth rate of specific groups is expected to differ, leading to increased diversification. In 1991, Chinese, Blacks, and Indo-Pakistanis accounted for the largest percentage of visible minorities in Canada (Kelly, 1995). However, the West Asian and Arab community in Canada is expected to show the fastest future growth rate, whereas Blacks and Indo-Pakistanis are expected to show the slowest growth rates (Kelly, 1995). This is likely to have implications for how Canada's policy of multiculturalism will be played out in the future.

In addition to visible minorities, many of whom are immigrants to Canada, it is important to consider the population of Aboriginal people in Canada, who have historically been targets of prejudice and discrimination (Moreau, 1991; see also Berry, 1981; Berry, Kalin, & Taylor, 1977; Mackie, 1974). Aboriginal people are a separate designated group under the Employment Equity Act of Canada, and include North American Indians, Inuit, and Métis (Employment and Immigration Canada, 1987; Statistics Canada, 1995a). In 1991, 4% of the Canadian population reported Aboriginal ancestry, more than double the 1981 percentage due to higher than average birth rates and reinstatements based on Bill C-31 amendments to the Indian Act (Statistics Canada, 1984; Statistics Canada, 1995a). It is estimated that the percentage of the population with reported Aboriginal ancestry will increase by another 1/2% in the next 20 years, so that by the year 2016 it will reach 4.5% (projections based on trends in fertility, mortality, and reinstatements based on Bill C-31 amendments to the Indian Act; Statistics Canada, 1995a).

Aboriginal people thus represent a sizable percentage of the population of Canada. In addition, their regional representation is uneven, with the largest proportional representation in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. In 1991, Aboriginal people represented approximately 10% of the population of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 23% of the population of the Yukon, and 61% of the population of the Northwest Territories (Statistics Canada, 1995a). These are also the regions in which growth rates are expected to be highest, so that by the year 2016, Aboriginal people are expected to represent approximately 16% of the population of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 24% of the population of the Yukon, and 67% of the population of the Northwest Territories (Statistics Canada, 1995a). Thus, the Aboriginal contribution to multiculturalism in Canada should not be underestimated.

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