Lord Vader

Except that there are only 200,000 Tamils in Canada and they are waiving flags of a terrorist organization and they are not supported by the majority. The Boer war and WW1 was a young Canada fighting with it's allies and Canada's mother country. In the early 20th century Canada was still very much a colony of Britain when it came to international affairs. WW2 was also Canada fighting with allies against a regime bent on world domination of the nth degree.

People that keep their own culture do not assimilate well with the host culture, nor do they assimilate well with the other recent immigrant cultures. It is not good to have a disunited and fragmented community loyal to another nation. The results can vary from protests blocking freeways to ethnically divided gang warfare to home grown terrorists. People not being loyal to the team they are playing for doesn't work for nations anymore than it does for a hockey or football team. A Mandarin speaking bank in Vancouver isn't much good to a person that speaks Punjabi. The solution is that they adopt the host language and take an active role in adding to the host culture. Self segregation is in no ones best long term interest.

The biggest worry is that unless something is changed this problem is only going to grow. A successful immigrant is one that assimilates into the host culture and adds to it rather than avoids it and refuses to adapt to their new country. I would wager than segregationists are less successful than those who adapt. Like Darwin's theory of evolution, the ones that adapt are more successful.

Novocastrian

Perhaps Ben has a photo?

DaveLovesDee

I think immigrants can keep their own culture to a degree, but they must also assimilate to a degree also. I know 3rd generation Indians who barely speak English because they've had a non-English education by going to live with relatives for their teenage years.

fledermaus

Don't you mean "we"???

DaveLovesDee

I've assimilated. I even speak Canadian, eh!

Novocastrian

I suppose if I googled I could find an indianexpats.canada forum somewhere.

Reprehensible of course.

fledermaus

yeah, and the pork pies, and scotch eggs?? fully assimilated??

It just seems a bit daft to me, a shed load of immigrants writing about immigrants as if they are separate species.

DaveLovesDee

Ewwww, pork pies!!!

I don't see anything wrong with the occaissional treat from the old country.

dbd33

For the 100th time. Canada does not have a host culture, what culture there is in Canada is that of the recent immigrants. Granted there are a few white men in baseball caps driving pick ups and shooting varmints but even their culture is displaced American rather than Canadian. You're nervous about the potential loss of something that hasn't existed since the sainted Pierre Trudeau saved the country from it.

Souvenir

That reminds me of a taxi journey last year. The driver was a cradle Quebecker and had some fairly strong views on immigrants. I pointed out that I am an immigrant. He said no, you're one of the family.

I'm sure that viewpoint had nothing to do with my being white and married to a Quebecoise. Nothing whatsoever.

clynnog

I've had similar experiences in which people have been railing about immigrants etc. and then I point out I wasn't born in Canada (little to no trace of an accent anymore) and they say things like 'yeah,but you're one of us' or 'you don't look like an immigrant' 'yeah, but you're white' etc.

BTW what is a 'cradle' Quebecker...is that a born and bred 10th generation person from QC...do you have to live in a house with lavendar coloured siding that is also a hairdressers, bank at a caisse pop, drink Laurentide, eat mae wests, drink pepsi, and have one of those tarpaulin temporary garages (there have I managed to fit in most kaybeck stereotypes).

dbd33

Obviously my partner gets this all the time, she's an American but people in Canada, hyphenated or not, can't tell the difference. They often makes jokes about Americans being fat.

Souvenir

I think dbd coined the phrase 'cradle Canadian', to mean people born here to people born here etc. I borrowed it. There are not many people with a bloodline that is unbroken back to the original settlers. I think my late FIL was 'pure laine' but he would have been a rarity.

Your stereotypes amuse me. I'm not sure about the siding but the hairdresser bit is spot on. You forgot nails, though. The birds here are fanatical about their fingernails. There are at least four places in Les Promenades alone.

Pepsi? Yes. Mae Wests? Not sure. Bud is the beer of choice in QC.

The temporary garages are a good idea in these parts. We bank with the Caisse. I believe it's the largest financial institution in Canada.

clynnog

People in the Pacific NW have little in the way of a discernible accent to me. The southern, the new york, the boston, the fargo type accent are easy to pick out. Dropping the letter 'u' in key words, writing todays date as 05-13-09 would be a giveaway, as would be referring to 'attorneys', 'sneakers', 'escrow',.

clynnog

[QUOTE=Souvenir;7567781]

Your stereotypes amuse me. I'm not sure about the siding but the hairdresser bit is spot on. You forgot nails, though. The birds here are fanatical about their fingernails. There are at least four places in Les Promenades alone.

Pepsi? Yes. Mae Wests? Not sure. Bud is the beer of choice in QC.

/QUOTE]

I've seen lavendar coloured siding on a number of houses in QC...often with a hairdressers within them and the fake butterflies and little old ladies leaning over picking at flowers plywood things.

Four places for nails in the Promenade...do they double as tanning (bronzage?) places as well.

You are right Bud is very popular...Laurentide is sort of for the older generation and I believe it is just Molson Canadian that has been re-labelled.