Inside the Mosaic

Hugh Mellon is an associate professor of political science at King’s
College, University of Western Ontario.

In the Canada of the 1950s, there was widespread identification with a
European heritage centred on the ancestry of Great Britain and France.
Half a century later, cultural values, ethnic identification, and
settlement trends indicate a more diverse (and exciting) socio-cultural
mix.

The contributors to Inside the Mosaic (many of whom are affiliated with
the University of Toronto) explore the nature and extent of the changes
in Canada’s largest and most ethnically diverse locality, Metropolitan
Toronto. In the words of editor Eric Fong, “It is the most popular
destination for Canadian immigrants and has experienced the most rapid
population growth of Canadian metropolitan areas, largely because of the
increase in immigration.”

Scholars such as the late Seymour Martin Lipset noted that racial
harmony tended to be more evident in Canadian society than in the United
States. Various authors in this volume acknowledge that harmony but are
reluctant to argue its permanence given current tensions over violence.
Some contributors debate the extent to which Canada’s official
multiculturalism has been responsible for producing the relative
harmony.

This timely collection has much to offer students.