Geoff Russ: Canada's purpose must be deeper than diverse takeout menus

Better food is no reason to support multiculturalism

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A nation’s highest purpose is not improving takeout menus, but you might be fooled by listening to the talk in the English-speaking world.

British television host Piers Morgan boasts there are “a lot of white English people I would happily trade for chicken tikka masala.” South Australia’s state premier has warned that “the food would be all the same” without multiculturalism, and that he “couldn’t think of anything worse.” When did exotic food become the social contract?

Canada in 2025 superficially resembles Canada in 2015, but it feels brittle and disjointed. Surveys now suggest most Canadians want lower immigration levels and want newcomers to adopt our customs instead of living apart in cultural enclaves. In other words, they want them to assimilate, and with good reason.

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The French sociologist Émile Durkheim argued that when people gather around shared religious rituals and symbols, they generate “

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