Insecurity And Fear: Right Wingers

Barry Watson Dept: Yet an overwhelming majority of Canadians are quietly proud of it and view it as a defining feature of Canada, according to The Star. Such broad acceptance of multicultural equality partly explains why Tim Hudak bombed with his attack on a provincial job-training program for new immigrants, foreign workers. It also explains why Stephen Harper succeeded in the federal election with his strong defence of multiculturalism when wooing ethnic voters, whereas Michael Ignatieff failed with the same bloc by being lukewarm about the trademark Liberal policy and it was on Oct. 8, 1971, that Pierre Trudeau announced the policy of multiculturalism. Saturday was its 40th anniversary. Being Canadians, we did not celebrate. The policy has not been free of controversy. Right-wingers keep sniping at it. Periods of economic insecurity and fear of terrorism produce a backlash against it. But such phases prove transient, says Barry Watson of Environics Research Group. With each passing year, more Canadians approve of multiculturalism. Tellingly, the Canadian-born and the foreign-born endorse it equally. They also overwhelmingly approve of immigration and only 9 per cent want Canada to bar non-whites. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.