Tonight I attended a town hall in Owen Sound that was held by the People’s Party of Canada.
Although it took every iota of strength that I had in my body to attend this event, I wanted to be present, as a representative of my community. It’s important to celebrate freedom of speech and to engage with people with (vastly) differing views.

At the beginning of the event, Mr Bernier mentioned how he had met “Hindu Canadians, and Pakistani Canadians and other communities” on the campaign trail and how he had told them that he wanted them “to not call themselves Indo-Canadians or Pakistani-Canadians but just Canadians.”

This did not sit well with me - as a first generation Canadian whose parents made immense sacrifices to come to this country, I feel that my Canadian identity goes hand in hand with my Pakistani identity. I can never give the latter up.

In such a diverse and multicultural country such as ours, one should never have to pick and chose their identities, be it Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, LGBTQ, or anything else. This is part and parcel of what makes Canada the beautiful beautiful country that it is. The fact that we can all coexist with love whilst retaining our individual identities is what makes us Canadian.

I want this post to serve as a reminder to all my friends about the importance of exercising your right to vote. We are blessed to be citizens of a country where we can vote freely and make our voices heard.

Diversity is our strength.

Waleed Aslam Shaikh, Owen Sound