Unlikely Utopia

Around the world, sectarian tensions divide societies, sometimes erupting into violent confrontation. Some pundits argue that similar convulsions will shake Canada's multicultural foundations. But Michael Adams argues that Canadians don't see this as inevitable. Far from being disabused of their naïveté by the world's conflicts and bloodshed, Adams believes Canadians suspect that the world might just be disabused of its "realism" by the success of the Canadian multicultural experiment. By focusing on the more mundane task of helping people of all kinds get along-both materially and socially-Canada may prove to be the "experiment" that worked. Michael Adams is president of the Environics group of marketing research and communications consulting companies with offices in the United States and Canada. He has written three bestselling books, including Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values, which won the prestigious 2004 Donner Prize for the best book on public policy in Canada.