This is a love letter about Canada by someone who has travelled more of its breadth than most of us.
Canada, enthuses former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, is “the most successfully diverse country in the world.”
Each year, Canada welcomes a quarter of a million new people. In this book of essays and profiles, Clarkson tells the story of 10 individuals who have come to Canada from places of great difficulty and threat, places such as Uganda and Vietnam and Chile.
“There is room,” she asserts, “for all of us.”
Writing with a keen sense for a gut-wrenching story, Clarkson suggests that Canada is developing what the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Muslim Ismaili sect, calls a “cosmopolitan ethic.”
And what an interesting cosmopolitan society she illumines. Clarkson weaves together stories of Tamil and Chilean refugees with the horrific memories of Holocaust survivors and Vietnamese boat people.
Her enthusiasm is sometimes too much. But no one can doubt Clarkson’s sincerity and hope. She desperately wants her readers to share her optimism.
via Adrienne Clarkson celebrates Canadian diversity, ‘cosmopolitan ethic’ – Winnipeg Free Press.
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