âWhat is Canada?â
Not a simple question, but Alison Froese-Stoddardâs answer netted her the Halifax Overseas Club Essay Prize â and a cool $4,000.
Her winning paper, âThe Birth of Canadaâs Multicultural Policy: Plotting the Official Acceptance of Diversity,â was originally written for a Canadian Studies class as an assignment asking the âWhat is Canada?â query above. The essay deals with the origins and politics of Canadaâs much-touted multiculturalism.
âThe multiculturalism thing is a really big part of what I consider to be Canada,â Ms. Froese-Stoddard explains. âIt was the first policy of its kind in any country.â
Shaping today's Canada
The birth of multiculturalism in Canada was more serendipitous than carefully engineered, she argues: Canada was declared bilingual in 1969, and âwhen Canada was starting to pay more attention to Quebec, the ethnic people of western Canada said, âwell, if Quebec is going to get special attention, weâre going to be part of this country tooâŠ' Trudeau was not expecting to make a nation-building policy out of this. It was mostly a political compromise.â
The resulting wave of officially-sanctioned multiculturalism, including the establishment of the Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism in 1973, helped shape the Canada we recognize today.
But is multiculturalism building stronger communities through respect for othersâ traditions, or dividing the country by creating what have been called âhyphenatedâ Canadians?
Ms. Froese-Stoddard doesnât want to simplify things by offering a simple answer. âI think weâre still learning to figure all this stuff out and figure out how to make our country a better place,â she says. âWe came up with this policy from listening to Canadians⊠we need to keep listening to Canadians and keep a conversation going with all Canadians⊠when the multiculturalism policy ceases to help us understand each other, then we should replace [it].â
Exploring the many vantage points
The Halifax Overseas Club Essay Prize is awarded to an essay that can âspeak to matters that stimulate the study of and an interest in the closer relations of the constituent parts of the British Commonwealth,â to quote the FASS website. The prize is one of multiple awards offered by FASS, but this is actually the first time in several years that itâs been handed out; in recent years, there havenât been enough suitable applicants. It was first established in 1920 through a resolution passed by the executive of the Nova Scotia Overseas League.
Ms. Froese-Stoddard, a mature student from Manitoba, grew up in a Mennonite town and has seen Canadaâs many cultures from various vantage points.
âThe multiculturalist ethos, I think, out west, is a little bit stronger⊠it was pretty common to talk to people and say âwhere you from?â and you were really saying, âwhere did your grandparents come from?â She also notes that, despite their cultural differences, Prairie folk and Atlantic Canadians have a lot in common. âThe sense of humour is pretty similar⊠Iâm still not used to having people bag my groceries, though!â
Ms. Froese Stoddard can imagine transferring her interest in Canadian diversity from her academic to professional career. âI like the idea of organizing information to make it more accessible⊠information management can be a social justice issue.â
To that end, sheâll continue to work towards her goal of a Masters in Library and Information Science from ±«Óătv.
âIâve always been a book nerd,â she jokes, and with any luck the Overseas Clubâs prize will more than help cover next yearâs textbooks.