Discourses of Multicultural Acknowledgment in Canada: Liberal and Conservative, General and Specific

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporary discourses of diversity and multiculturalism are contentious spaces in Western democracies. Symbolically, they have come to serve as a forum for governments to articulate their larger nation-building, citizenship and political agendas. In this sense, multiculturalism, whatever else it is, is a model of political belonging: a form of political symbolism directed at minorities and majorities to establish the conditions of belonging to the political community. This article examines the model(s) of belonging to political community in the Harper Conservative (2004–2015) and Trudeau Liberal (2015–2019) governments, presenting textual data derived from a broad discourse analysis. It illustrates that both use multiculturalism as a form of minority and majority acknowledgment that highlights the terms of belonging to the Canadian multicultural political community. Further, it reveals a difference in rhetorical strategy. while Conservative multiculturalism prioritizes a practice of specific minority acknowledgment that casts integration to the existing national identity as the responsibility of ethno-cultural communities, Liberal multiculturalism prioritizes the general acknowledgment of difference in order to broaden the national identity, and turn it outward to global relevance. Importantly, this illustrates the surprising variability and tenacity of multicultural symbolism in Canada.