The truth about Multiculturalism in Canada

MBA Applicants planning to join Canadian Business Schools have a natural curiosity to compare the MBA program offered by Canada with that of top American Business Schools. You have to understand the inherent difference in values between the American and the Canadian society. Although we don’t want to do a case study on over 60 social, individual and religious values, learning about some of the key difference between the two societies is essential.

Diversity

Canadian society values diversity as an enabler for economic activity. Canada, like the US, is a nation built by immigrants. Unlike the US, where the diversity is noticeable in a few metropolitan cities, Canada’s workforce is driven by diverse professionals from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, Ukraine, India, Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Russia, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Hungary.

It is no surprise to see the Canadian Prime Minister welcoming Syrians Immigrants with roses despite Europe at large and Americans in particular, looking at them with suspicion. According to the 2011 Census, 20.8% of the Canadian population is born in another country, the largest percentage of immigrants among the G8 Countries.
Over 62.5% of the immigrants chose Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver as their destination. Among the three, one-third (32.8%) settled in Toronto, 16.3% in Montreal and 13.3% in Vancouver. The influx of minority groups and professionals from multiple ethnic groups started from 8th October 1971, when the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared multiculturalism as an official government policy. This was an attempt to recognize the contribution of the ethnic minority groups towards the cultural diversity of Canada. Initially, started as a way of accepting the equal influence of British and French culture in Canada, the policy has offered greater influence and freedom for all ethnic minorities.

Diversity is not limited to ethnicity or nationality. For the past decade, the government has started Canada's Best Diversity Employers award that recognizes Employers demonstrating diversity in recruiting Women, Minorities, Disabled citizens, Aboriginal natives, and employees from the LGBT community. Last year’s winners included top MBA recruiters: Accenture Inc., Boeing Canada Operations Limited, Capgemini Canada Inc., Cargill Limited, Deloitte LLP, Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., KPMG LLP, Procter & Gamble Inc.,PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Scotiabank, Shell Canada Limited and Xerox Canada Inc.

Equality

Unlike in the US where equality is defined mostly in terms of social rights, for Canadians, equality is defined both as a Social and Economic right. Even Obama’s controversial healthcare plan opened up government-mediated exchanges for the underprivileged to purchase insurance from multiple players. The fundamental idea was that with competition, prices will go down. Canadians define their economic equality through unemployment insurance, universal healthcare, free public university education and government pensions, all paid through the share of taxpayer’s money. A progressive taxation ensures that equality as a value is provided to all Canadian citizens.

The push to equality started with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), a treaty adopted by the United Nations on 16th Dec 1966 and came to force on 3rd Jan 1976. The treaty pushed for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) ....

The above post is an excerpt from the book - Why Canada: A complete Career Guide for MBA Applicants