Demography Diversity and Identities in a Changing Canada

This edition of Canadian Issues seeks to inform the parameters of the current conversation. Its central contribution is to connect demographic change to the institutions, identities and political narratives through which that change is understood and managed. The contributions move from a historical account of Canada’s demographic transformation to the policy challenge of sustaining immigration, from regional lessons about integration to new forms of racial and religious diversity, and finally to the changing meaning of multiculturalism and the politics of demographic anxiety. Taken together, they show that demography is not simply a matter of population outcomes. It is also about where people live, whether institutions can respond, how identities are measured, whether newcomers can participate fully, and whether Canadians retain confidence in both diversity and the country’s capacity to oversee and effectively manage the changes.