Today’s federal government is increasingly dividing Canadians along lines of when and how people came to Canada. Informally, Canadians are increasingly divided almost tribally as indigenous, colonizers, settlers, immigrants, migrants, and refugees (as well as by skin colour and sexual persuasion). Much of the times, these terms are arbitrary, subjective, and dependent on perspective.
In the past, the belief was that we were all Canadians, and once someone was here, the term Canadian applied universally, regardless of when or how they person came to Canada or what skin colour they have. The argument in dividing up Canadians like this, is that it helps government allocate funding to marginalized and disadvantaged people. The argument against these classifications is that they are arbitrary, transient, and divisive.
Click below to view last week’s poll question results:
