Wow, ignorance abounds in your post.  1) "We were safe".  Crime rates are lower today than in your childhood.  Today, my son is safer than I was in my youth during the 70's.  People might perceive greater danger today, but it is a fallacy supported only by anecdotal evidence; 2) You follow "we never heard the word 'racist' with a terribly racist description of the divisions between French and English Canadians.  Perhaps you didn't hear the word, but you surely exemplify it; 3) "a lot of different looking people came to Canada."  Their has not been a day in Canada's history where we were ethnically, nor culturally, homogeneous.  It's a myth!  A myth!  We have had a healthy Chinese population since pre-confederation, many whom helped build the railway.  Their are numerous aboriginal tribes in Canada, each with their unique religious beliefs, not to mention the Metis.  Even the white population is diverse, English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian etc in origin