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Preserving A National Identity

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580405,00.html

I'm impressed.  Go France!  Here is a country who knows who they are and what they are and they want to keep it that way!  Now, I'm not saying that I agree with everything that France is trying to do here, but I like the principle.  What would happen if we asked Canadians what it means to be Canadian?  (And by this I mean real Canadians - at least those whose parents were born in our fair nation.)  Would the Canadian idenity have to do with The Hudson's Bay Company?  Indiginous people groups? Metis?  French Canada?  Farming, fishing or forestry?  Christianity?  Or would it roll into Punjab and Hindi?  Muslim and Sikh?  While I don't believe in other faiths but Christianity, I'm not going to tell people they're wrong or that they can't worship which ever god they chose - it is a part of our rights and freedoms as Canadians.  However, when the world looks at our country, do they see Canadians or do they see Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Caribbean Islanders or Filipinos?

I like to consider myself pure Canadian.  My family has been in this country for more than 100 years now.  They came, the saw, they adapted.  How many other families have followed mine here in hopes for a better life?  Mine found that better life, but I see so many living the exact same life they left behind.  They brought with them their family, their way of life, their culture and have created their own little worlds within our society.

I'm sure we've all heard the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans".  Welcome to Canada my friends.  I have no issue with you being here if you're prepared to adapt to our society.  I don't want to have to learn Punjab, Mandarine or Korean just so I can go pick up milk at the corner store.

I'm all for Eric Besson's measures to preserve the French identity, but one begins to wonder just how much of the true Canadian idenity has already been lost.
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  1. AnonymousDecember 16, 2009 at 3:11 PM

    Hmmm...I'm not sure we had an identity to begin with. But if we do, I'm pretty sure it involves toques, hockey and beavers.

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