2001 Census: Scottish? Chinese? How many?
Many people ask me why the fascination of Scottish culture, or the unlikely fusion of Scottish and Chinese traditions for Gung Haggis Fat Choy?
I usually reply that the Scots and Chinese are really Vancouver's earliest pioneering cultures, along with First Nations of course. I regard the Scots and Chinese as British Columbia's "Two Solitudes," which Wikipedia describes as "A phrase expressing Canada's bilingual and bicultural nature. Traditionally, French and English Canadians have had little to do with each other -- hence the "two solitudes", together but separate, alone but together.
The phrase originally comes from Hugh MacLennan's 1945 novel "Two Solitudes" which the McGill-Queens University Press describes as "
"A landmark of
nationalist fiction, Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes is the story of two
races within one nation, each with its own legend and ideas of what a
nation should be. In his vivid portrayals of human drama in prewar
Quebec, MacLennan focuses on two individuals whose love increases the
prejudices that surround them until they discover that "love consists
in this, that two solitudes protect, and touch and greet each other."
According to the 2001 Census results for Vancouver.
The top ten total responses for ethnic origins were:
Total population: 1,967,480
English 475,075
Canadian 378,545
Chinese 347,985
Scottish 311,940
Irish 234,680
German 187,410
East Indian 142,060
French 128,715
Ukrainian 76,525
Italian 69,000
These results are for people who checked these responses in the ethnicity box. In reality they could choose as many boxes as applied to them, or as they wanted. But ideally, these are the people who most count English, Chinese, Scottish as the ancestry.
Of people who selected only one ethnic group the results are:
Total responses: 1,226,280
Chinese 312,180
East Indian 123,570
Canadian 141,110
English 112,910
Filipino 48,510
German 44,470
Scottish 41,920
Italian 29,665
Korean 27,745
Irish 23,125
Dutch (Netherlands) 21,115
These are the people who chose only one ethnicity. These numbers also would most likely represent the newest immigrant groups. People who checked "Canadian" most likely did so, because they did not want to be defined by "ethnic origin" or simply didn't have a clue as to what to check. Former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson admitted that she checked "Canadian" even though it is documented and widely known that she was born in Hong Kong.
Now it gets more interesting with people who chose multiple ethnic boxes. Groups below can be said to represent the groups that have inter-married most with a different ethnic culture. Although this could be misleading if you lump English, Scottish and Irish together as "British"- just make sure you don't separate them into Catholic and Prostestant because some Irish Catholics would be more likely to marry a Filipino Catholic rather than an Irish Protestant. But in Canada, we are all "Canadian" and the great thing is we are more likely to be open-minded about race, religion, and culture.... aren't we?
Total responses: 741,195
English 362,165
Scottish 270,020
Canadian 237,435
Irish 211,555
German 142,945
French 113,655
Ukranian 58,375
Dutch (Netherlands) 46,050
Italian 39,335
Polish 36,760
Nowegian 35,735
Chinese 35,800
East Indian 18,495
