Saturday evening, we were treated to Texas Barbecue by Heather and Gord Kitzul. It was a wonderful meal and the conversation and reminiscing among our island neighbours was wonderful. Over the course of the evening, we began discussing the various meals we have been served, not only in the district but in our travels.
Gord and Heather talked about a wild game feed that is put on by their church back in Austin and the variety of different meats that were prepared and served. In many ways it is like the Beast Feast put on by the Rainy River District Lions club that features different wild meats that have been harvested during hunting season. In our travels we have experienced a great variety of different foods. In Australia we enjoyed kangaroo and in Newfoundland seal. My son tells us the best steak he has ever enjoyed was Zebra in Namibia. As we travel we experience new foods and immigrants bring new foods and customs to our communities.
As I shop at Safeway, I can’t help but notice that we are now seeing 10KG bags of different rice varieties on the shelves and condiments bearing descriptions for south Asian cultures. Even in the meat department, we see Korean short ribs and more lamb in the meat counters.
One only must go into any fast-food restaurant, box store, or the hospital to meet new district residents who have come from other countries and now live in our district. They are no different than the Ukrainians and Polish folk who arrived in the district 75 years ago or the Vietnamese who arrived 45 years ago. They have discovered that Fort Frances and the district offers many opportunities,
And their arrival also brings new traditions in food culture to our communities. Our sons have married wives of different cultures, and they have introduced us to new flavours and ways of preparing food. Both have adopted those cultural differences into their everyday lives. And we look forward to visits where we can enjoy those new flavours and foods.
In Canada we are proud of our multi-cultural nation. As Canadians we are proud of our cultural diversity and on Canada Day we were able to celebrate that diversity in our community and across the district. Back in 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau mad us the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism. In the over fifty years, 54 percent of Gen Z aren’t white and baby boomers even less. Even more amazing is that almost half of new relationships are cross cultural.
King Charles in his speech from the throne spoke of a new pride in being Canadian. Recent polls continue to show Canadians from coast to coast have a new sense of pride. We can compare ourselves to our neighbours to the south that now worry about DEI and whether they can embrace cultural differences. We are a different culture willing to embrace differences in cultures, religion, race and foods. It is what makes us proud Canadians.
