The following article by Michael Adams and Andrew Parkin was published in The Globe and Mail on July 1, 2024.

Canadians don’t need to worry about identity politics

Should Canadians be worried about identity politics?

Some commentators lament the current obsession with identity, which they say focuses on what makes us different from one another rather than on what we have in common; that identity politics only serve to divide society into resentful silos.

What this criticism overlooks, however, is the striking ability Canadians have to embrace mulitple identities at the same time – showing that difference and unity are simply two sides of the same coin.

Identity is important to most of us, not just a radical fringe. Two in three Canadians (according to the most recent survey we conducted with our Confederation of Tomorrow partners) agree that expressing their cultural identity is important to their overall well-being and happiness. This proportion is higher among some groups, notably francophones, allophones, recent immigrants and Indigenous peoples. But even a majority of non-immigrant, English-speaking Canadians say that expressing their identity is important.

Exactly which identity we feel the country should trumpet the loudest has, of course, been a source of friction in Canada from the start. British or French? Catholic or Protestant? East or West? When it comes to our federation, at least, most don’t feel the need to choose. Seven in 10 Canadians say they define themselves both as a Canadian and someone from their province, rather than as only one or the other. This includes most Quebeckers. Similarly, most Indigenous people surveyed say they consider themselves to be both Indigenous and Canadian, rather than choosing only one of these identities and rejecting the other.

A slightly different question paints a similar picture. As we celebrate Canada Day, we can applaud the fact that the overwhelming majority of people living here say they feel attached to this country. But the same large proportion say they feel attached to their province or territory. Mathematically, this can only mean that most of us (more than three in four) feel attached to both at the same time. This is true of a majority in every region of the country, including Quebec. In the case of Indigenous people, most feel attached both to Canada and to their Indigenous nation or community.

The Canadian form of identity politics, then, is one wherein people don’t feel forced to choose only one. There is nothing divisive about the expression of different identities when there is room for them to overlap. If we hadn’t figured out how to accommodate this diversity under one umbrella, there wouldn’t be a Canada Day to celebrate at all.

Our survey leaves us with one other message: The next step we should take as a country is to open up more space for the expression of identities, not less. Relatively few Canadians – only about one in four – say that they feel pressure to hide or downplay their cultural identity. But it must be noted that this proportion is much higher among recent immigrants and reaches one in two among those who identify as Indigenous. More concerning, this is not a holdover from a less enlightened past. It is young people – across Canada as a whole, and among immigrants and Indigenous people in particular – who are most likely to say they feel pressure to mute their identities.

There is one other curious wrinkle to this story. Canadians who feel pressured to downplay their cultural identity are not concentrated on the “woke left.” The proportion that says they feel constrained is much higher among those who place themselves on the right of the political spectrum. This may change, of course, if the next federal election brings not just a change of government in Ottawa but a change in political discourse. But for now, the main point is the same: National unity is more likely to be strengthened by boosting, rather than restricting, the number of different voices we can hear.

Michael Adams is the founder and president of the Environics Institute for Survey Research. Andrew Parkin is the Institute’s executive director.