In 1966, my parents came to Canada.
My father lead the way for my mother and my two older sisters. But back then, immigrants knew they were getting away from cultures and societies that were no longer providing them with opportunity for a better life than their parents. My father was one of seven children looking at a worn down farm in Northern Greece, a sixth grade education and a future of hard back breaking work.
He chose instead to come to thriving North America and they settled down in a house in the suburbs of Toronto where my mother still lives to this day. He and his brothers went into the restaurant business and helped introduce Canadians to great dishes like Souvlaki and Tzatziki, but they never EVER took it for granted that the burger and fries would be the staples on the menus.
To this day, my father’s four surviving brothers all work in the restaurant business and have been pretty successful at it.
My father, no longer with us, used to tell me about what it was like. He worked hard to learn English and read the papers daily. He would say to himself “Canadians like hockey? Then I will like Hockey!!”
This to me is the epitome of what multiculturalism should be. They knew what side of the bread was buttered for them, and they added a dash of Greek spices to the mix. I grew up watching hockey twice a week. Saturday’s on CBC and Wednesday’s on CHCH. I did not grow up watching Soccer on a satellite dish.
I guess what I am trying to say is that multiculturalism back in the days before Trudeau was not what it is today. The acceptance of Canadian culture and an oath to Canada, to the Canadian nation, to the Canadian flag, to Canadian languages should be first and foremost.
The multiculturalism of today has turned our nation into a microcosm of the globe with pockets of culture building up neighbourhoods locked into one ethnicity or another. Yet none choose Canada and it’s culture anymore. Instead they choose to bring their own cultures, languages and set up their own neighbourhoods and follow their old traditions.
Quebec was smart to protect itself with the language laws, but the English speaking cities and provinces choose not to. This creates confusion when you see signs in various languages across a single city. Yet Anglophones rail against Quebec and the language laws when it is those same language laws that English speaking Canada needs to adopt to protect itself.
I think the overall failure of multiculturalism is echoed by Salim Mansur in his column from yesterday.
As we politely enjoyed each other’s music and cuisines, new immigrants learned less about the country they adopted as home — and less was demanded of them from a country increasingly preoccupied by its threatened breakup.
We cannot return to the years before 1967. But we can no longer deceive ourselves about building a secure and prosperous country while indulging ourselves as polite strangers in a Canada soaked with multicultural illusions.
All I need to do to remember is recall those words my father used to say. “Canadians like hockey? Then I will like Hockey.” And he always did.