Previous Issues
Celebating diversity
?On the surface of it, Uxbridge may not seem to be as ethnically diverse a community as Markham, Mississauga or Toronto. And if you were to look at the statistics, you would probably discover that the western European countries, often by way of the United States (like our Quaker founders) or other parts of Canada, provide a pretty substantial percentage of our population.
But we suspect that if you dug a bit deeper, you would discover that the people of Uxbridge come from just as many different parts of the planet as those in the bigger centres, and whether or not we’re aware of it, they make our community very much richer for choosing to live here. They bring a wide variety of cultural traditions to our arts, social and business scenes, and we should cherish their contributions to our everyday lives.
In our past Canada Day special sections, the Cosmos has turned its team of contributing writers loose on the provinces, recounting memorable moments and unique places they’ve encountered while travelling this great country of ours. This year, we’re going to concentrate on people, in particular on people from all over the world who’ve chosen to make Canada, and in particular Uxbridge, their new home.
Each of 12 writers in our June 25 issue will profile an individual, or couple, or family who has left their homeland, perhaps 50 years ago, perhaps last month, and surmounted many obstacles to settle in this new land. Why did they leave? Why did they choose Canada, and Uxbridge, as their home? What did they bring with them, what did they leave behind? What pleasant, or unpleasant surprises, did we hold for them?
Now, our writers know Uxbridge pretty well, but even the longest-established and busiest of them can only claim to be acquainted with a pretty small proportion of the total population. So it’s a pretty certain bet that if we only used our own contacts to write this special issue, we’d be missing out on some great stories. That’s why we’d like to invite you to nominate yourself or your family to be included.
The only criterion is to have been born outside Canada, and it doesn’t matter how far outside. Maybe you came from Manhattan, maybe from Mongolia. Perhaps you came when you were still an infant, perhaps you were already a senior citizen. You may speak English like a native Goodwooder, you may not speak English at all. Wherever you’re from, whyever you came, we’d love to tell your story, because it’s part of Uxbridge’s story, and that’s what we’re all about.
So contact us at the numbers below, by mail, phone, e-mail or in person, by Friday, June 12. We’ll put together a list, and keeping in mind to make the stories from as many parts of the globe as possible, we’ll invite our 12 writers to choose one of you to interview. All of them are eagerly looking forward to the assignment.
We think it promises to be one of the best editions we’ve published so far, and certainly no better project to tackle for Canada Day. For as much as our nation is about fascinating places, it’s even more about fascinating people. We look forward to hearing from you.
