Great Multicultural North
  • Paperback ISBN: 9781552663837
  • Paperback Price: $12.95 CAD
  • Publication Date: Jul 2010
  • Rights: World
  • Pages: 168

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Great Multicultural North

A Canadian Primer for Hosers, Immigrants and Socialists

Ernesto (Ernie) Raj Peshkov-Chow

Canada is a funny place, with funny people and an even funnier system of government. In fact, according to ComCan, a division of the Intellectual Property branch of the Department of Trade, Industry and Digging Deep Holes into the Earth, about 4.16536356 per cent of our GDP is a direct or indirect result of our sense of humour. In addition, the ability of Canadians to laugh at themselves is one reason this country could lead the planet past ethnic, political and economic divisions, according to author Ernesto (Ernie) Raj Peshkov-Chow. In Great Multicultural North: A Canadian Primer the self-described Mongrel-Canadian argues that our geography, form of government, mythology, history, sense of humour and mass immigration gives Canada the opportunity to develop the world’s first post-ethnic, democratic, internationalist nationalism. Great Multicultural North is both a primer (soft i) and a primer (hard i). It is a short, easy to read explanation of Canada and a small charge that sets off a bigger explosion of a new sort of Canadian nationalism. 

 

About the Author

Ernesto (Ernie) Raj Peshkov-Chow is a Canadian author and journalist. 

Reviews

Great Multicultural North Reviewed in the Halifax Chronicle Herald

 This is a book,” says the opening lines of Great Multicultural North, “for anyone who has ever pondered what it means to be Canadian.” Read on.

It is clear that Ernesto (Ernie) Raj Peshkov-Chow (who will henceforth be referred to as Ernie) has pondered this question long and hard.

Ernie doesn’t beat about the bush. “What is a Canadian?” he asks in Chapter 1, which has a good news/bad news answer. Apparently the definition of Canadian continues to evolve and we haven’t yet chiselled out the final wording.

The good news is that because no one really knows, we all sort of slide in under the radar and can call ourselves Canadian with impunity.

Great Multicultural North is a small, readable, informative primer about “how the Canadian circle can accommodate all those who choose to live within it.” It tackles serious questions about immigrants and immigration policy with humour and wit.

It is funny and hugely entertaining, packed with interesting facts and statistics, probably drawn from the long census form! Did you know that Canada produces more comedians than any other country? Or that almost 20 per cent of all Canadians were born outside the country, second only to Australia?

Ultimately, Great Multicultural North is hopeful about the evolution of Canadians and multiculturalism. Living together in harmony and peace is our ultimate goal, says Ernie.

We all “belong to overlapping concentric circles of communities.” What we still lack is “a sense of community as a common humanity, or as a living thing, or as a part of the planet, or as an integral part of the universe. We need to expand our circle . . . Canada could be the first place to make it happen.”

Ernesto (Ernie) Raj Peshkov-Chow is an author and journalist whose favourite pets are peeves, who believes the Maple Leafs are holding back on greatness and who firmly believes in a new order of Canadian nationalism.–Judith Meyrick, Chronicle Herald November 2010

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