Is Vancouver a Multicultural City?

Sunday morning I was looking for some discussions on the aftermath of the federal Liberal leadership vote yesterday. There was a good half hour of it on CBC Radio One. Then in the 10:00 - 10:30 time slot I tuned into Toronto station CFRB via the Internet. Host Kelly Cultrara had an open line of callers presenting their views of whether Stephane Dion will be an asset or detriment to the Liberals.

I called in to add my 2 cents. I mentioned that our fear out here in the West is that the Liberals could have a sock puppet as their leader and still the majority of Ontarioans would vote for them! As for the fact that Dion's command of the English language isn't great I commented that I don't think this is an issue for most people in Vancouver because we're such a multicultural city.

Ms. Cultrara thought about this and then said [paraphrasing]: "Having lived in both places, it's interesting to me that you describe Vancouver as a multicultural city. I don't think it's multicultural at all as compared to Toronto."

No one had ever challenged the multicultural nature of Vancouver before and in point of fact, I really can't disagree with her. Sure, Vancouver has large Chinese and East Indian communities but beyond that we really don't have large numbers of other cultures . . . or do we?

I'd love to hear your comments on this!