Canadian Unity Essay

1539 Words4 Pages

Achieving unity within a country is the most fundamental and central goal of a nation. In order for a county to unite, they must first achieve unification in what values they hold to be important. They also need to be in accordance with one another as to how the country works and how they wish to be governed. These factors help create a region's identity and make it different from areas around it. It is a goal most difficult to accomplish due to the discrepancies between cultures, religions, personal beliefs and many other factors that may exist in that area. Canada is an example of a nation with the question of a country wide unification among all its citizens on the table since the time of confederation in 1867 and even a few years prior. What some these factors that make Canada different from areas around it? How can a country that dominates such large land mass and that bares such vast cultural differences, be united? Can Canadians ever come to agreement upon the values they hold to be important? The debates of these questions continue to plague Canadian parliaments, especially when examining the differences between Canada and the province Quebec. Even though many argue and hope for Canada’s unity in the future, the differences in political socialization and culture present throughout the country creates a blurry vision of Canadian harmony and makes it extremely difficult to realistically vision Canadian unification. Is that, however, a bad thing? The differences in values and opinions among Canadians are illustrated through political socialization agents and variables that exist within different regions of Canada. From all of these agents and variables present, regionalism is the ones that impacts political unity in the... ... middle of paper ... ...ans and the British settlers. So, why are we forcing ourselves to define what a “Canadian” truly is, when Canada has never been a country with one prevalent cultural group? But this is not to say that Canada will never be a unified country. South Africa is an example of the unification of a country that has torn itself apart by apartheid policies. Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to this struggle, seeking equality for all races, finally achieving his goal in 1995. If Mandela unified a country that was deeply racist and apartheid for such a long time, who are we to say that we cannot someday unify a country simply divided because of deferential to authority and differing arrangements of party systems? Canada and its citizens will one day realize the many deeper things they hold in common that unify them, which will help us in making strides towards true unification.

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