While no one can be so naive as to believe there are no racial tensions in Canada, an event like the one held in the city Sunday should make you question why such tensions still exist.
The event referenced was the Yorkton Festival of Cultures hosted by the East Central Newcomer Welcome Centre at SIGN on Broadway.
The festival was a way to connect the various local cultures together within the Yorkton community, and perhaps more importantly simply to experience how diverse our city is.
That is not new. There has always been diversity here, although until the last quarter century that diversity had come from Europe with a mix of Russian, German, English, Ukrainian and most countries from the region being involved in the influx of farmers onto the Canadian Prairies over the years.
The lure of owning land and creating a better future for families brought those early immigrants who joined the First Nations already here in carving out a nation.
More recently our province has seen new people coming here as our population eclipsed one million for the first time in decades.
The allure for the new wave of immigrants may not be access to free land but it most certainly is the hope for a better future.
And, as it has always been, immigrants bring with them aspects of their culture; art, dance, music, language and of course foods, all being woven into the ever-changing tapestry that is Canada.
It makes for some wonderful examples of just how intertwined cultures in Canada can become.
At one booth where a lady was helping, she was half Ukrainian.
The man at the booth was born in the Republic of Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the African continent. The gentleman eventually immigrated to England with his family growing up in London, before eventually making his way to Canada and eventually Yorkton.
The booth they were working at was dedicated to First Nations. Among the food the pair served was bannock.
In many ways that booth, and the pair working at it, speaks to exactly what it is to be Canadian.
We are a country where it is natural to find a perogy on a Chinese buffet simply because we borrow the good things wave after wave of immigrant have brought to this country to make something that is ever changing culturally – the uniqueness that is our Canada.
We have built this country from the best of others, creating something that is better, stronger, diverse and unique and all of us should be proud of just what we have created.
