Why can’t I be a ‘Canadian’?
Re: Making a case for diversity, Sept. 13
Why can’t I be a “Canadian” when I fill out a Canadian government survey?
I was on a federal government website filling out a feedback survey. The subject of the survey is irrelevant but at the end were the usual questions around demographics — where do you live, how much you make and of course the obligatory race and ethnicity questions.
You are given a drop-down list for ethnicity and the entire world and more is there … except Canadian.
Why is that? Why is Italian, Irish, Swahili, Laplander and a host of others a choice of ethnicity but not Canadian? Is it because they have a longer history? How much history do you need to qualify as an ethnicity?
I think we qualified in Flanders fields and on the beaches of Normandy!
There were people who came from Scotland to Canada in 1770 and people who came from Ireland in the 1840s that I am descended from but I can’t go to either of those countries without showing my Canadian passport. Even if I did go it’s not like I can say “Hi, I’m home!” So why can’t I specify “Canadian” when asked my ethnicity on a Canadian government website?
Then there is the obligatory “race” question. Last I looked we did not live in the Star Wars universe. We are all human. I don’t think this question should be asked because, to paraphrase our prime minister, it’s 2018.