Common values among Canadians?

Image from PostMillennial


Added May 14:
GlobalNews: “The Yellow Vests, as a movement, a protest entity, is not racist in any way, nor is it extremist in any way,” [Mark] Friesen wrote on Facebook on April 28. “My country comes before party and before Yellow Vests, just so happens the Yellow Vests and my party believe in, and want to protect, those Canadian values we all share.”


Common values among Canadians?

Wow ... what could they be?

Whatever they are, apparently two thirds of Canadians are convinced that immigrants don't share them. So we'd better find out what those values are, eh?

Forget that Canada prides itself on its cultural diversity, freedom of religion, freedom of association and all that good stuff.  Let's ask Wikipedia for the real list of Canadian values:

Looks like they weren't even thought about until Justin Trudeau was elected PM:

• The major political parties have claimed explicitly that they uphold these values, but use generalities to specify them. Justin Trudeau after taking office as Prime Minister in 2015 tried to define what it means to be Canadian, saying that Canada lacks a core identity but does have shared values:
• "There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada....There are shared values — openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality and justice. Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state."

Postnational? Vas ist das? Translation required? Hold onto your hat:

From Quora: Vas ist das is an orthographically incorrect version of the German question, "what is this/that?”

"Orthographically"? Und Vas ist das?????

FreeDictionary: Orthography is the study of spelling

Which means it should be "was ist das", though pronounced "vas ist das". So I guess "orthographically" means "spellingly".

Sorry, I went away for a bit there. Never mind - or, as the kids say: "Whudever" -- I got sidetracked by how the French have co-opted the misspelled phrase and reduced it to just one word: "vasistas". Read the rest of the Quora definition to find out why. It's hilarious (to me, anyway).

All that, and we haven't even got to the Trudeau word: "Postnational".

Oxford Dictionary: Postnational

• Of or relating to a time or society in which national identity has become less important

"Less important"? It seems that since 2015 Canada's "national identity" has become overly important, judging by the PostmIllennial headline: Large survey shows two thirds of Canadians unhappy with how immigrants are adopting Canadian values.

The "institute" (Environics) that prompted the article operates out of Toronto. Despite not being able to definitively list the "Canadian values" to which it refers, it does, however, regularly inform governments as well as businesses and media (are you getting a sense that we're not talking about moral precepts here, but perhaps selling features?), and offers speaking engagements in the person of its president Michael Adams, who, himself, is of such high value to this country that he has been awarded The Order of Canada.

Personally, whenever I see a particular Order of Canada award, I wonder how long it will take for it to be rescinded.

Wikipedia:

• As of October 2015, six people have been removed from the Order of Canada: Alan Eagleson, who was dismissed after being jailed for fraud in 1998; David Ahenakew, who faced calls for his removal due to anti-Semitic comments he made in 2002;[82] T. Sher Singh, after the Law Society of Upper Canada found him guilty of professional misconduct and revoked his licence to practise law; Steve Fonyo, due to "his multiple criminal convictions, for which there are no outstanding appeals"; Garth Drabinsky, who was found guilty of fraud and forgery in Ontario and has been a fugitive from American law for related crimes; and Lord Black of Crossharbour, who was convicted in the United States in 2007 of fraud and obstruction of justice.[88] In 2013, Norman Barwin resigned from the order as a result of the Advisory Council moving forward with his pending removal due to his being found guilty of professional misconduct

I leave it to you to decide which way Michael Adams' politics tend to swing.

Here's another survey site "Canadian Values Alliance" that outright admits it doesn't really have a clue and has "no agenda" except to investigate, but then it contradicts itself by saying it wants to "help build a more values-driven society".  It's "not aligned with any political organizations" but is obviously aligned with the corporations that "support" it.

So there's a whole other value being placed on the word "value" and that appears to be consumerability, as in what does one value in a vehicle, in clothing fashions, technology, social media ... and how "consumer-able" the responder is.

Click the link "Environics Analytics" and see its product: "Shopper Insights", "Marketing Strategy" "investment Strategy".

See also Royal Roads university.  That school is all business -- and how patriotic is that, eh?

I shouldn't be talking about this as if it were a future endeavour. The "Canadian Values Alliance" began picking Canadian brains, through its sister-site in October 2017, and  gives the impression it is an ongoing endeavour -- assuring one and all that their secrets remain safe with them -- although there are no scheduled "conversations" at this time.

I could come up with more agencies interested in assessing Canadian "values", but you get the picture. It comes down to this: if the people who accuse immigrants of not living up to our country's values can't say what our universal values are, then they are probably just racist.

Here might be an indication of Canadians' real values:

PostMillennial: Where would you rank Justin Trudeau on the all-time-greatest-PM list?

How whacky is that, eh? You'd have to know who the other prime ministers have been down through the years and something about the times in which they lived, and the most outstanding features of their administration. Somehow I wouldn't imagine a racist bothering his/her head about a comparison of Canada's historical figures.

I suppose I could be wrong. I know Canada forced Japanese-Canadians into concentration camps during WWII under William Lyon Mackenzie King (who also turned away a boatload of Jewish refugees), and that could be a part of history that might give the Far Right some weird sort of comfort.

But I personally don't see the value of the exercise. You get up close to any politician and you won't be all that impressed, starting with the very first one, Sir John A. Macdonald, who pretty much proved you can be a hopeless, up-chucking public drunk and still be memorialized in city parks (where the pigeons know what to do), not to mention being exploited in celebrations courtesy of the whiskey industry in cahoots with Parks Canada!