Why are there so many divisions of Canadians? Our mass media seem to call people by a myriad of sub groups. We hear Canadians referred to as:

“South Asian-Canadians”, or even further, Indian-Canadians, Pakistani-Canadians, etc.

“Asian-Canadians” – Chinese-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians, Korean-Canadians, Vietnamese-Canadians.

“African-Canadians”, or breakdowns by some country or other.

We don’t seem to hear “Arab-Canadian” but do like to hyphenate people who(se ancestors) came from the middle east by country.

We still sometimes hear of European-Canadians. Most likely for the first generation such as “Italian-Canadian” “German-Canadian” “the Greeks”, “Latinos”, but soon, we’re all lumped together as “whites” (which is still a sub division).

“First Nations” get a different treatment and that’s another topic.

Somehow, we’ve got to drop the “Xxx-Canadian”. You will notice that when our government announces that it is assisting a Canadian in trouble in another country there is no hyphenation. Why don’t we all try to emulate that manner of address.

I’m don’t think that we who occupy this vast, interesting country should develop into a combative “screw you” type of Canadianism, but that quiet pride that has made this a good place to live is definitely OK.

We are Canadians. Drop the hyphen.

The Plaidneck