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The Tapestry Vision of Canadian Multiculturalism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

V. Seymour Wilson
V. Seymour Wilson
Affiliation:
Carleton University
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Abstract

Cultural and racial pluralism have increasingly become a “riveting reality” of contemporary Canadian society. Various dimensions of this reality are explored and critical observations are made about the contribution of Canadian political science to an understanding of the phenomenon and its impact on our political life. The increasing polyethnicity of Canadian society has pressured our decision-makers into articulating both a vision and a policy of multiculturalism. However, since the early 1980s both vision and policy have come under siege. The motives of the critics of multiculturalism are questioned, and an endorsement is made of policies which continue to seek answers in pursuit of the democratic ideals of procedural justice, human equality and mutual respect.

Résumé

Le pluralisme culturel et racial devient de plus en plus une «réalité fascinante» de la société contemporaine canadienne. Diverses dimensions de cette réalité sont explorées et des observations critiques sont formulées quant à la contribution des sciences politiques canadiennes à une meilleure compréhension de ce phénomène et de ses conséquences sur notre vie politique. La polyethnicité croissante de la société canadienne a contraint nos technocrates à élaborer une vision et une politique claires en matière de multiculturalisme. Toutefois, depuis le début des années quatre-vingt, cette vision et cette politique sont toutes deux assiégées. Ce texte interroge les motivations descritiques du multiculturalisme et exprime son appui pour des politiques qui cherchent toujours des solutions favorisant la poursuite des idéaux démocratiques de la justice de procédure, de l'égalité humaine et du respect mutuel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 645 - 669
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1993

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References

1 I am grateful to my colleagues, Rhadda Jhappan, Sharon Sutherland, John Meisel, O. P. Dwivedi, Alan Cairns, Ted Hodgetts and Yasmeen Abu-Laban for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and I absolve them of responsibility for any errors of fact or interpretation.

2 I have always found Samuel P. Huntington's conception of our approach to the study of political phenomena acceptable, with a few qualifications and caveats added to that understanding: “Political scientists attempt to explain political phenomena. They view politics as a dependent variable, and they naturally look for the explanations of politics in other social processes and institutions. This tendency was reinforced by the Marxian and Freudian intellectual atmosphere of the 1930s and 1940s. Political scientists were themselves concerned with the social, psychological, and economic roots of political behavior. Consequently social change, personality change, and economic change were, in their view, more fundamental than political change. If one could understand and explain the former, one could easily account for the latter” (Huntington, Samuel P., “The Change to Change,” in Macridis, Roy C. and Brown, Bernard E., eds., Comparative Politics: Notes and Readings [4th ed.; Georgetown: Dorsey, 1972], 408Google Scholar, emphasis added). For a partial critique of this pervasive conception of political phenomena, see Cairns, Alan C., “The Governments and Societies of Canadian Federalism,” this Journal 10 (1977), 695–725.Google Scholar

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