This year's U.S. presidential election called into question core American values more than any other U.S. vote in my lifetime. It has really made me appreciate how proud I am to be Canadian, and how grateful I am for the Canada I live in.
Growing up, I always looked to the United States as a country for all nations to aspire to, including Canada. Its stumbles aside, including its most shameful ones, I never questioned the United States as being the world’s leading liberal democracy. I never seriously questioned that the U.S. genuinely cared about the welfare of its citizens, the protection of their civil liberties, and the right of all Americans to live their lives peacefully in a manner of their own choosing. I admired how Americans waved their flag and pledged allegiance to it as a symbol of one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
How did that one nation become so divided? And how did our nation, founded by two nations, become so unified?
Diversity in America has become a source of its division, while in Canada it has increasingly become a source of national pride. Diversity has come to define today’s Canada and has become one of our greatest strengths. It is what unifies us, and what enables us to govern ourselves with significantly less of the discord, vitriol and rhetoric that have come to define U.S. politics today.
Our country was founded on inclusion and compromise, and by negotiation and agreement. From our inception, our constitutional documents recognized and protected two languages, two school systems and two cultures. Over time, we became a nation of immigrants from every part of the world. And we learned to promote and protect the individual and collective identities of all Canadians, most notably by enacting progressive multicultural and immigration policies and enshrining our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the values on which these legislative actions were based did not exactly define who we were at the time, they have certainly come to shape us today.
These values have served as the foundation of our collective and individual identities and have permitted Canada to provide robust health care to all of its citizens, become a leader in human rights and civil liberties and keep our citizens safe. These are some of Canada’s most important accomplishments and examples of how diversity has been a source of Canadian progress and strength. We have become a stronger nation because of our diversity, not in spite of it.
I have always considered myself a proud Canadian. Like many Canadians, I have carried that pride in my heart; but rarely have I worn my Canadian heart on my sleeve. Such a public display would have just seemed too un-Canadian. But that has to change, because Canada has become a country to which much of the world should aspire – including the United States.
My hope for 2017 is that all Canadians wear their hearts on their sleeves for the world to see. We have much to be proud of and we should never take that for granted.•
Debra Hewson is CEO of Odlum Brown.
