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Rest assured that we don't want those states either. Honestly most of "liberal" California or Oregon are not good enough to join Canada.
Oh, the almighty GDP per capital - if you do believe in that magic number, then Detroit would be one of the best place to live, not just in North America, but among the entire developed world too
Great. Good thing the U.S. got them then. We've done pretty well with California. Hollywood is a global cultural behemoth and Silicon Valley is the global vanguard of technological development. Not to mention, Yosemite, Death Valley, Kings Canyon, Napa Wine Country, Redwood National Park and hundreds of miles of warm beaches and Mediterranean climate. It also has more people than Canada, a higher GDP per capita, a booming economy and great climate. Seems like a pretty swell place to me. I'd certainly prefer it to living in a cookie-cutter condo in the middle of the tundra.
And too bad Canada lost out on the Oregon Territory! And Alaska too. In fact, the U.S. took half of British Columbia's Pacific coastline. I'm guessing you didn't want that either though.
And I'm guessing our Hawai'i is a giant turd too. And Florida too. It sucks so much, Canadians swam down here to enjoy it.
What is a born and bred American? There is no 'American culture.' Americans in Seattle have fundamentally different cultural values and societal traits than Americans in Texas, or Mississippi, or New England, or South Florida, or Hawai'i, or Alaska, or Puerto Rico or the Midwest or Appalachia. You seem to be trying to say that 325,000,000 people in the U.S. are not diverse because they fit into this large amalgam called 'American culture.'
So those 62% non-white Canadians run the gamut from Mexican undocumented farm workers to upper-class Koreans to recently-arrived Vietnamese. Are you saying that diversity flees once you assimilate? That's a very disturbing and frankly Trumpist way of looking at things. Those 62% whether they are Black, Asian or Latino hold facets of their ancestry that are of value to them. Asian-Americans in the U.S. go to frat parties t night and Buddhist temples or churches the next day. Latinos in the U.S., even third-generation Latinos with perfect Spanish, watch the latest Hollywood movie before having a merengue party. Assilimation does not deny someone the ability to feel a connection to their past ancestry. So it's ridiculous to assume that the experiences of 62% of Americans doesn't count because they're not "fresh off the boat" which in your view is the only true form of diversity.
A white Swede moving to the U.S. lowers racial diversity and increases ancestral diversity. The U.S. exceeds Canada in both. We have more racial minorities and our White population is not overwhelmingly British and French. In fact, we have more Germans and Irish than those last two groups. So I would welcome a Nigerian American just as I would a Swedish America.
And in 30 years when they've assimilated, I will still acknowledge and celebrate their ancestry and their unique cultural background and will not dismiss it just because they're not 'fresh off the boat' anymore.
Wow did you misunderstand my post.
My point I thought was clear. Judging diversity by skin colour alone, as your percentages do, does NOT show the diversity that actually exists.
Those non-white Canadians do not all come from the same culture. There is diversity within skin colours.
I don't disagree with "A white Swede moving to the U.S. lowers racial diversity and increases ancestral diversity.", BUT that swede would not show up in your percentage calculations as increasing diversity when in fact the culture they are bringing and adding to the mix is just as valid as someone with a different skin colour and culture.
Again, judging diversity by skin colour alone is prejudicial.
My point I thought was clear. Judging diversity by skin colour alone, as your percentages do, does NOT show the diversity that actually exists.
Those non-white Canadians do not all come from the same culture. There is diversity within skin colours.
I don't disagree with "A white Swede moving to the U.S. lowers racial diversity and increases ancestral diversity.", BUT that swede would not show up in your percentage calculations as increasing diversity when in fact the culture they are bringing and adding to the mix is just as valid as someone with a different skin colour and culture.
Again, judging diversity by skin colour alone is prejudicial.
Canada is 76% white and the vast majority of those 76% are from the British Isles or French descent. Please enlighten me: where is this so-called diversity?
Some Canadians have this bad habit of elevating parts of Toronto and pretending they are representative of the country. I could just as easily pick out Queens or Brooklyn and use that as a cudgel to further my argument. But I won't because I think America's diversity speaks for itself.
You have 76% of Canadians who are overwhelmingly historically tied to 300,000 square miles of territory in Europe. And then you have 24% which represents "everybody else." 24% of everybody else is 9 million people, to be generous. In essence, Canada has fewer racial minorities than New York City: US2010
So, again, how is Canada more diverse or multicultural than the U.S.? Less racial minorities. Check. Smaller non-White population than New York. Check. Less ancestral diversity within its white population. Check. Yet it's still considered more diverse? I know some of you guys like to pretend to be #1 in everything, but this whole "we're so multicultural, everybody wants to be like us" is grounded on statistical dishonesty.
I said 'racially diverse.' Please re-read my comment. There is this perception, particularly among Toronto boosters, that Toronto is the most diverse city in the world. And they purposefully use linguistic diversity because it makes Toronto look good. But there are many measures of diversity, including race, religion, sexual orientation, national ancestry (Whites in the U.S. are far more diverse in ancestry than Whites in Canada. That is a fact).
Language is not a far superior benchmark for cultural diversity. I'm from Latin American by descent and oftentimes the only thing that binds the hundreds of indigenous tribes in most South American countries is speaking Spanish.
When the colonial powers tried to integrate 'Native' peoples, the first thing they took away is their own language. So you now have thousands of tribes in Latin America who have kept everything - cuisine, religion, cultural mores, rituals, communal societal structures - but have lost their language. Are you demoting their cultural identity because they don't speak their own language?
Canadians often accuse the U.S. of only looking at race. Well, Canadians often only look at language, because that is the historical binary that has defined Canadian culture (English vs. French). But language is a faulty measure for vast swathes of the world.
So I refuse to concede that language is the 'be-all-and-end-all' of diverse. That's just a fairly blatant attempt to redefine diversity in terms that, once again, make Toronto look more diverse than it truly is.
You sound clueless.
Race is meaningless. Being white doesn't meant those people share the same or similar value. Black people born in America are fundamentally different from those immigrants from Africa or Jamaica;
Religion. Sorry, that's not important in modern Canada. Keep Jesus to yourself.
Sexual orientation? I think the gay population is similar everywhere.
Ancestry ? How the hell does that matter? You mean people's great great great parents determine diversity?
Language is not perfect but far better than any of those. And I did not use it to make Toronto look good. NYC for example has a lot more languages than Toronto.
Canada is 76% white and the vast majority of those 76% are from the British Isles or French descent. Please enlighten me: where is this so-called diversity?
Some Canadians have this bad habit of elevating parts of Toronto and pretending they are representative of the country. I could just as easily pick out Queens or Brooklyn and use that as a cudgel to further my argument. But I won't because I think America's diversity speaks for itself.
You have 76% of Canadians who are overwhelmingly historically tied to 300,000 square miles of territory in Europe. And then you have 24% which represents "everybody else." 24% of everybody else is 9 million people, to be generous. In essence, Canada has fewer racial minorities than New York City: US2010
So, again, how is Canada more diverse or multicultural than the U.S.? Less racial minorities. Check. Smaller non-White population than New York. Check. Less ancestral diversity within its white population. Check. Yet it's still considered more diverse? I know some of you guys like to pretend to be #1 in everything, but this whole "we're so multicultural, everybody wants to be like us" is grounded on statistical dishonesty.
My you are jumpy.
I am not talking about which country is more diverse. I am challenging the method of rating diversity by skin colour.
Canada is 76% white and the vast majority of those 76% are from the British Isles or French descent. Please enlighten me: where is this so-called diversity?
Some Canadians have this bad habit of elevating parts of Toronto and pretending they are representative of the country. I could just as easily pick out Queens or Brooklyn and use that as a cudgel to further my argument. But I won't because I think America's diversity speaks for itself.
You have 76% of Canadians who are overwhelmingly historically tied to 300,000 square miles of territory in Europe. And then you have 24% which represents "everybody else." 24% of everybody else is 9 million people, to be generous. In essence, Canada has fewer racial minorities than New York City: US2010
So, again, how is Canada more diverse or multicultural than the U.S.? Less racial minorities. Check. Smaller non-White population than New York. Check. Less ancestral diversity within its white population. Check. Yet it's still considered more diverse? I know some of you guys like to pretend to be #1 in everything, but this whole "we're so multicultural, everybody wants to be like us" is grounded on statistical dishonesty.
Again white or not white is not the key information here. Stop being obsessed with "race". It is so backwards.
I don't necessarily agree that Canada needs the best and brightest. Our immigration system should seek to attract people who are most likely to succeed in Canada, not necessarily the ones who appear to be the "best". The reason is simple: Canada is not exactly a big all-around country that can provide enough opportunity or monetary incentive for the best talent in every field. We should be honest with prospective immigrants - if their highly sought after skills in a certain area doesn't have much room to be fully utilized in Canada, then what's the point of attracting them and disappointing them once they come? It happens too often.
Yes, we should avoid the situation where the highly scored credentials based on the point system become toilet paper in real life because employers consider them useless. Our point system should be based on reality, or some vain and imaginable need of Phds and MSs in quantum physics. If we do have more need for plumbers then give them points than engineers (I think the policy is shifting to this direction?). It is irresponsible for us to advertise the need for the best and brightest when our economy has little use for many of them.
Actually, I think this is an excellent post!
I may sound like a broken record but there is an understated importance in just attracting quality people willing to do average or slightly above average jobs. If there is one area where Canada is in need of labour its in the trades! What's wrong with attracting Plumbers/Electricians and Millrights? Not a thing! If I think of where I work, we are always looking for those trades - always!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli
Again white or not white is not the key information here. Stop being obsessed with "race". It is so backwards.
I notice on C v C that many Americans use racial colour as pretty much the only qualifier for diversity. Cultural and ethnic diversity is not as well regarded. To some of our American friends, doesn't matter if you're a Ukrainian or Dutch - you're lumped into the same bag of coal - White. I have a friend from B'dos and it Drives him CRAZY that people assume he is Jamaican just because he is dark skinned and from the Caribbean.
It really occurred to me lately that race is really much less frequently mentioned in Canada, by politicians or the media. One more thing I appreciate about Canada.
I think people sharing the same langugue have a lot more in common that people who share the same skin color. Additionally what's race? How to categorize mixed people? Do we put them in the same basket pretending a Chinese/German mix is similar to a Nigeria/Spain mix? What confuses more is "white Latino vs non-white Latino" wow, does white matter or does Latino matter? I have no idea.
I am not even sure what is white. Most of the Arabs are white too, do they belong to the same people as Germans or Brits? Even China and Japan have white people in certain regions, are they the same as WASps?
Race is a horrible standard for measuring diversity.
I am with you on this. The constant talk of race as if it were a huge deal makes me sick.
I love it when we agree
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