ABSTRACT

Compared to other Western democracies, there has been relatively stable support for multiculturalism in Canada since its adoption in 1971, both amongst the general public and amongst the three main political parties. Conservative opposition to multiculturalism has, therefore, typically taken the form of “stealth” reforms to undercut its progressive potential, not direct frontal attacks. During the 2015 election, however, the Conservative Party campaigned on an explicitly anti-multiculturalist platform. This provided a clear opportunity to test “Canadian exceptionalism” in relation to public support for multiculturalism. In this article, I explore the Conservatives’ strategy, and its impact on the election. The evidence suggests that a significant part of the Canadian electorate was responsive to an anti-multicultural—and more specifically anti-Muslim—discourse. However, when this discourse was pushed too far, voters recoiled from what was perceived as an excessive, and indeed “unCanadian,” politics of distrust and division. The article explores different ways of understanding this tipping point, and what it tells us about the precarious resilience of multiculturalism in Canada.

摘要

与其他西方民主国家相比，加拿大的多元文化主义自 1971 年通过以来，无论是在公众中还是在三个主要政党中，都得到了相对稳定的支持。因此，保守派反对多元文化主义通常采取“隐形”改革的形式来削弱其进步潜力，而不是直接正面攻击。然而，在 2015 年大选期间，保守党在一个明确的反多元文化主义平台上进行竞选。这提供了一个明确的机会来测试与公众对多元文化主义的支持相关的“加拿大例外论”。在本文中，我将探讨保守党的策略及其对选举的影响。有证据表明，加拿大选民的很大一部分对反多元文化——更具体地说是反穆斯林——的话语做出了回应。然而，当这种话语被推得太远时，选民们就会从被认​​为是过度的、实际上“非加拿大”的不信任和分裂的政治中退缩。这篇文章探讨了理解这一临界点的不同方式，以及它告诉我们关于加拿大多元文化主义不稳定的复原力的内容。