Sunday, July 02, 2017

Justin Trudeau on recent vs. distant immigrants' affinity for Canada - aboriginal context

Ahead of Canada's 150th birthday celebration, Justin Trudeau recently said that more recent immigrants to Canada have more affinity for the country because they chose to come here, rather than simply being born here:
“I always sort of laugh when you see people who are – not many of them, but – intolerant or who think, ‘Go back to your own country,’” Trudeau said in the television interview.

“No!” Trudeau continued. “You chose this country. This is your country more than it is for others because we take it for granted.”
I wonder if he was thinking of the broader context: does this apply to the aboriginal relationship to Canada? I'm not sure he intended it that way, but Europeans chose to come to Canada moreso than did the aboriginal peoples that had already been here for generations when they arrived.

Or maybe I am underestimating him - maybe he did intend it to be taken both ways, as a statement on the continuum of immigration.

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