As far as Canada being liberal, I can't speak about how Canadia liberalism is different than American liberalism (I suspect it is different) but if it is like some European cities I've been to, people seem to mix better and are not be placed into categories and sub-cultures based on race. The liberals in this country are at least as much to blame as the right wingers, as they have strongly promoted programs that separate people by race since the civil rights act, this has also contributed to separatist feelings and furthering sub-cultures. People may underestimate the effect of sub-culture in continued racial divides. When I went to England, I noticed black and white people acted, dressed and spoke very similarly. Here, that is not always the case, particularly when there are class differences. Federally funded entitlement programs then caused some backlash and feelings of resentment among some non-blacks which contributed to the continued struggle. The fact that slavery ended 50 yrs later in the US may be the root of the issue. Compounding our difficulties is the fact that there continued to be angry activists forming a cultural feeling of being wronged, being helpless and deserving entitlements and federal policies based on race which lead to separatism and mounted tensions on both sides post the civil rights laws. These issues in our country have lead to some anger and feelings of entitlement that perhaps Canadian blacks have not felt or at least not as strongly. Either way, the best way to move forward is to acknowledge the past but recognize the best ways of continuing to move past it as other countries have already done.
It is the same here in Canada as well. Blacks & Whites both act and dress very similarly as well. It has only been in recent years with the ushering in of so called "Common Sense Revolution" (right wing majority government) that came into power in 1996 (and subsequently fvcked up this province soooo badly) along with what many classify as "cultural pollution" from the USA that we have begun to see a distinctive change in our young people. More & more poorer disenfranchised Black kids are adopting the styles and attitudes of American gangsta thugs, ...and of course this is also spreading to upper class white suburban kids as well who think it's cool to emulate these styles. They're quite laughable at time. I see all the little private school kids around my house. They will congregate in McD's change into their hip hop gangsta clothes and be all bad ass, ...then change back into their uniforms before going home to Mommy & Daddy.
The great divide in the US has to do not so much with the fact that slavery ended later in the US. It has to do with the fact that "segregation" was the law of the land. We had no such legislated discrimination here. When you forcibly separate a people, you shouldn't be surprised to see that they veer down two different paths and adopt different habits, develope different cultures, and different speech patterns. heck, look at the US. Try to find an American who speaks with a British accent. that wasn't too difficult to do in 1776, but as the years wore on, you now speak differently than those over in the UK, you spell things differently too. it's the same with the French Canadians. When Canada confederated in 1867, the Quebecois had been removed from France for over 200 yrs. They knew they weren't British, ...but they sure knew they weren't French anymore either. Even their language changed. Ask a Parisian from France to converse with a Quebecois and his brain bleeds just trying to understand them. my girlfriend is Belgian. Whenever we're in Montreal and people ask her if she speaks French, ...she just lies and says NO. {lol}
There are angry activists who have a right to be angry, and there were entitlement programs that were administered ineffectively and exploited by all sides to further their own agendas, and of course this leads to resentments, but there comes a time when one has to sit down and examine what went wrong, where, and why, and proceed. throwing the baby out with the bath water and harbouring additional hostilities isn't going to get you where you want to be or where you ought to be. I think requiring as so many in the USA do, that people fit into neat little boxes, and being afraid of what is different is what holds you back. the rush to conformity is mindboggling. I see it only because I am removed from it.
Our society also developed differently as well. I could be wrong, but I think close to 50% of our population is made up of 1
st. & 2
nd generation immigrants. We didn't have an entire class of people legislated to languish in poverty. Strike that. We do. Our native population hasn't fared so well over the years, and we do have entitlement programs as far as they are concerned. There are alot of grievances in the native aboriginal communities, and rightfully so. Our governments over the years have sought to address many of them, but again, no country is perfect. There is a large amount of aboriginals who like many of Wright's generation feel anger, and bitter resentment for what they've had to endure, and the attrocities committed against their people. There are also alot who have overcome, ...and with native self-determination, the situation in alot of the native communities and on the reserves is changing and improving for the better.
Since Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau ushered in a policy of multiculturalism, Toronto, which was whiter than wonderbread when I moved here, has turned into a vibrant cosmopolitan metropolis with every shade, hue, religion, and ethnicity under the sun. Our immigration patterns mirror world populations, and we have in a sense recreated the entire world right here in Canada in the space of a generation. As a result, we grew together, rather than apart.
Canadian leaders also are not afraid to tackle situations using a different approach, or quick to demonize something just because it came from someone who may not be popular. I'm thinking about Jean Crétien here. I remember when we had that Quebec referendum on sovereignty, and he borrowed a page out of Louis Farrakhan's playbook, and bussed Canadians in from all over the country to Quebec. It was a good idea, and it worked. We narrowly avoided separation. I could never see ANY US politico trying something suggested by a Farrakhan. It'd be denounced simply because of the messenger. I think people need to get over that. Get past the messenger & listen to the message
If you really want to know more about Canada, and how we developed, do a search on here, for a 3 part post I made a few yrs ago called "Canada - The Great Northern Experiment". I think it was posted in the General section.
