In 2013, Erkan Gören published a study on Ethnic Diversity across the globe, using data on race, cultural background, and language to measure the world's varied peoples. The findings closely mirrored the results of a similar study in 2002 from Harvard:
1) Africa leads in ethnic diversity, on account of the literal hundreds of tribal dialects and cultures found within it's massive borders.
2) The most homogenous countries are in Europe and SE Asia - South Korea and Japan, for instance, are almost uniformly home to one group each.
3) Perhaps most controversially, there was a strong correlation between homogeneity and strength on the Democracy Index, a measure of freedom and rights.
It is this last point that is perhaps most salient, though as the Washington Post observed in their commentary on the Harvard study, correlation does NOT equal causation, and the study itself says:
The democracy index is inversely related to ethnic fractionalization (when latitude is not controlled for). This result is consistent with theory and evidence presented in Aghion, Alesina and Trebbi (2002). The idea is that in more fragmented societies a group imposes restrictions on political liberty to impose control on the other groups. In more homogeneous societies, it is easier to rule more democratically since conflicts are less intense.
The WP goes on to pull this "money quote:"
In general, it does not matter for our purposes whether ethnic differences reflect physical attributes of groups (skin color, facial features) or long-lasting social conventions (language, marriage within the group, cultural norms) or simple social definition (self-identification, identification by outsiders). When people persistently identify with a particular group, they form potential interest groups that can be manipulated by political leaders, who often choose to mobilize some coalition of ethnic groups (“us”) to the exclusion of others (“them”). Politicians also sometimes can mobilize support by singling out some groups for persecution, where hatred of the minority group is complementary to some policy the politician wishes to pursue.
It is this final point which seems damning, and yet for all this data there is an anomaly in the equation: Canada.
Photo via Unsplash by Harry Sandhu
Canada, which in 2016 was rated 5th in the world for the Democracy Index, behind Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland, all of which indeed scored very low in Diversity. Yet Canada, in Gören's findings, was also the only Western nation to break the top 20 in Ethnic Diversity is well.
The people behind these studies seem to largely throw up their hands in confusion when confronted with this baffling finding. How can a nation maintain such strong standards of democracy, when it must be at conflict with itself non-stop, trying to accommodate so many different groups, with different ideas and morals and objectives?
The answer is...it's an ongoing tightrope walk, and it threatens to plummet into a safety net of tribal hatred every. Single. Day.
That probably sounds like a dire, nightmarish existence. But the truth is that it is a marvel to behold and to live in. It is an adrenaline rush of soaring at the top of the circus tent while other countries choose to remain grounded in their acts on the floor of the big top. They may be the foundation on which we stand, but we've taken their gifts and perfected them into the star attraction. All eyes go to Canada, the daredevils of diversity: how DO they do it? And will they fall this time?
For today's particular show, one need only turn to the controversies and complaints of our 150th anniversary of Confederation. The "#Canada150" programming, sponsored by first the Harper and now the Trudeau government, is a slate of performances and celebrations that some see as fantastic, some see as humdrum, and yet many more see as outright insulting.
I think they're all correct.
Photo via Unsplash by Scott Webb
We are not all one simple idea, and certainly not one simple trajectory of history that can be compartmentalized and marketed as a bonne fête pour tout le monde.
We are a country founded on the blood and trauma of residential schools.
We are a country founded on the strength of lives given in 1812.
We are a country that built a railway on the backs of dead Chinese men.
We are a country that built the Canadarm.
We are a country that failed in Rwanda, and let millions die.
We are the country that forged peace in the Suez Crisis, and created Peacekeeping.
We are silenced First Nations peoples, we are the families of Chinese launderers, we are carded Blacks, we are Christian migrants, we are rich, we are poor, we are privileged, we are not.
We are all these things and more, riding a high-wire act of insanity that no other nation can truly say they match. Every day we are tempted by the exhaustion of carrying all these children to reject one of our own, and send ourselves tumbling down into the safety net of populist rhetoric and tribalism. And every day we choose instead to climb back up to balance, we are great.
We would call this a celebration at 150, but that implies a beginning and an end. Rather, it is a process, one which is forever ongoing, and which we mark by the passage and the journey.
So this IS Canada at 150.
It is also Canada at 12,000.
And it is Canada at Day One.
Here's to us.
Photo via Unsplash by Alex Shutin