WE HAVE SOMEHOW AGREED ON THIS AS A DESIRABLE QUALITY.

population. In other words, we encouraged immigrants from Europe, especially Britain, but not from Africa or Asia. Our record during the Second World War was abysmal.

This changed in the 1960s, when we signed the UN’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In 1966, Lester B. Pearson’s government published a White Paper advocating a universal admissions policy. In 1971, Pierre Trudeau’s government declared that multiculturalism was official state policy.

That’s the historic context for our current devotion to fairness in immigration. Slowly, and thoughtfully, we have reversed the principle that earlier generations accepted.

On private morals we have made equally important changes. Samesex marriage seemed outlandish to most people in Canada a few decades ago. But after thinking about it for a while, and listening to the arguments of those for and against it, we decided (not everyone, but apparently a majority) that it was only fair. The government is now proposing to erase the criminal record of all those who were convicted under the laws again homosexuals. It follows no legal precedent, but that too will be a victory for fairness. Why shouldn’t we redress the injustice against people who violated laws that no longer exist?

Fairness, for all the good-hearted intentions we bring to it, can sometimes lead us toward empty gestures and vain attempts to cleanse our history. Official apologies for the Chinese head tax of the 1880s, or the resettlement of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s, make those who utter them feel better but do nothing to mitigate the original offence. Today, people in public institutions sometimes preface their lectures or speeches with an acknowledgment that they are on the grounds of the Mississauga or other indigenous tribes. While that may be motivated by an attempt at fairness, it usually emerges as hollow piety, of no benefit to anyone.

Fairness is an unspoken ideal and an unarticulated yearning. It is more an intention than an achievement. In a world of competitive desires, we reach for it as a way to balance conflict and seek honourable solutions. It’s not sexy, not easy to sell and not something you could put on a banner. Certainly nobody would write it into an election platform.

But it stands at the core of many of our successes, not least the public health service. It may not be brilliant, but for a country modest in its ambitions, fairness is a beacon to cherish.