Political Culture, not Values
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000204 |
| Author | Rima Berns-McGown |
| Subject Matter | Values, US and Canadian |
Rima
Berns-McGown
Political
culture,
not values
It
has become intellectually fashionable to talk about Canadian values, and
to oppose these to values held by other people, especially Americans.
Americans
and Canadians, as individuals, are said to hold different values
from
one another, and this is said to show that there are national differ-
ences
between the inhabitants of these two polities, and even that these dif-
ferences
are growing.' Canadian values have even been marketed by the
Canadian federal government as a property worth exporting, a commodity
that demonstrates to the rest of the world that Canadians have a compara-
tive
advantage in being multicultural, and that others would do well to
fol-
low
our example. There are economic, as well as political, reasons that such
a
position—if it holds—stands to benefit Canada and the Canadian govern-
ment. As
Will
Kymlicka notes, knowing that Canada is a "diversity-friend-
ly"
country may encourage people to visit,
study,
do business, and even set-
tle
there.2 It is, however, highly problematic: as Denis Stairs has written,
"the assumption that our ability to integrate immigrants and minorities is due
to superior 'values' leaves us both
unduly
smug and ignorant."'
Rima
Berns-McCown
is the
managing
editor of the International Journal. She is grateful to
Nicholas
L.
Osen,
John
Vervaeke,
and the editors of the IJ for
useful
comments
and
conversa-
tion.
ι Michael
Adams,
Fire
and Ice: The United
States,
Canada
and the Myth of
Converging
Values
(Toronto: Penguin,2003).
2
Kymlicka,
"Marketing
Canadian
pluralism in the international
arena,"
International
Journal
59
(autumn 2004):
829-52.
3
Denis
Stairs's
"Myths, morals and reality in
Canadian
foreign policy," International
Journal
58
(spring
2003):
239-56;
Kymlicka,
ibid.
I International Journal | Spring
2005
| 341 |
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