Add diversity, if you haven’t already, to Toronto’s best assets. Toronto’s multiculturalism is no longer dominated by white Europeans either. Almost 50% of Toronto’s population is made of visible minorities (Mark Steyn’s head must have just popped). There are now over 5 million visible minority groups in the country.
There are ofcocarse a few lonely voices that speak against multicultural but for the most part, everyone gets along relatively well. In fact, I’d say with not just tolerance but mutual respect (relative to other places in the world).
Toronto is one of the few places in the world where you could dine the cuisine of nearly every culture, find local grocery stores from nearly every nationality, watch foreign films in theaters or rental shops, listen to music and dance to every cultural tune imaginable either at a club or a community event. For debt loaded students such as my self, Toronto’s diversity represents an opportunity to travel the world one weekend at a time without ever leaving GTA’s boundaries.
South Asians top the list with 1.3 million people surpassing 1.216 million Chinese to take first place as the largest visible minority group.
South Asians are a diverse community among them selves full of culture and exquisite cuisines. My favorite, Indian vegetarian cuisine makes you want to give up meat. However, I have to admit curry chicken is too good to give up.
As for cultural events, I am a regular fan (been going for 3 years in a row) of the South Asian Culture Show which brings thousands together to watch cultural performances of university students from all over Ontario. Here is a YouTube clip from 2006 when UTM (my campus) won 2nd place, my first visit.
If any country has any doubts about the benefits of multiculturalism and wants to have a look at how globalization will look like in the future, Toronto is a probably the best place in the world to see this great experiment at work.
The flip-side should be considered as well. Robert Putman (author of ‘Bowling Alone”) suggests in his recent work that people living in more ethnically diverse areas show lower levels of trust across the board.
My view is that social cohesion is one of the ‘anchor points’ of socliast style policies (for example, is it a coincidence that Tommy Douglas and medicare originated in non-diverse Sakatchewan?). And, one important component of social cohesion is the sense that other members of society are ‘desrving’ in some way, i.e. they follow the norms and conventions of society and as such are worthy of help from the larger group.
Can the lack of this social cohesion explain the breakdown of Detroit (and Camden, and Philly, and Newark, and etc.).
Can the lack of social cohesion be partly responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union (and Yugsolavia, and Czhecoslovakia, and etc. etc.)?
Just sayin’.