A man apart

Stobo Sniderman spends a day with Michael Chong.

To this day, Chong has expressed no regret about his resignation. “Canada cannot survive as a jumble of nations. The role of the state is to focus on the qualities that hold us together,” he told me. He does not deny the existence of a Québécois nation, but he thinks the role of the Canadian Parliament is to create a multicultural future, not recognize historical facts. The question is not so much who we were, or even who we are. “The real question is what do we want to be.” Canada grows ever more multicultural and moves ever further from its three founding peoples...

“The nation motion reinforced otherness, increased divides,” he said. “I don’t see it bringing people together. These things have consequences decades down the line.”