在“巴黎条约”规定下法国的“下加拿大”被割让给英国，可是那时印第安人称为“加拿大”的整块土地还要等一百年才真正成为一个独立国。英国，作为战胜国，对新的法裔公民可以说是宽宏大量。1774年，英国国会通过了魁北克法案，保证魁北克人信仰天主教的自由，并允许他们继续使用法国民事法律，英国国王甚至赋予魁北克人最初的权利宪章 (Charter of Rights)，为法语和法国文化的认同铺了道路，也奠定了后来加拿大的双语多文化和社会宽容的基础。
1867年7月1日（加拿大国庆日）英国维多利亚女王接受殖民地英法两族裔领导人签署的夏洛特镇协议 (Charlottetown Accord)，宣布实行《英属北美法案》(British North America Act)，把已经属于英国104年的“下加拿大”（今魁北克省），和另一个叫“上加拿大”(Upper Canada - 今安大略)的省份，新斯科舍(Nova Scotia)和新不伦瑞克 (New Brunswick)结合成一个有四个省份的独立联邦国家，称之为加拿大自治领 (Dominion of Canada)。
Are you a Chinese or are a Canadian? This is the crux of the problem.
There is no ambiguity with the word “Canadian”. “Canadian” is not a race (i.e. ethnicity), it is a nationality.
What does being “Chinese” mean?
“Chinese” is a loaded word. It is a race, a culture, a language, a nationality and a whole bunch of emotionally-charged stuff.
Other immigrants have no problem with being just Canadian, pure and simple, but somehow many Chinese immigrants find it difficult to separate these little compartments of their being. And so they feel a need to qualify their NATIONALITY by adding the RACIAL description “Chinese”, as if to set themselves apart from others.
Of course we can never change our “Chinese-ness” (nor should we), but calling ourselves Chinese-Canadian is to set ourselves up as “qualified” Canadians (i.e. conditional Canadians). You are free to do so，yes. But the problem with constantly trotting out your “Chinese-ness” is that you are sending the message to other Canadians that you are somehow DIFFERENT (to them that reads “superior”). If they then treat you “differently”, you have no right to complain.
After all is said and done, it boils down to this: It is simply not necessary to always mix nationality with race.
I swear (or affirm) That I will be faithful And bear true allegiance To Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, And that I will faithfully Observe the laws of Canada And fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.
Someone asked me once, "are you a Chinese? or are you Canadian?" My answer was: "I am Chinese Canadian." "But what if you have to pick one of them, which one would you pick, Chinese? or Canadian?" I said: "This is what I am, Chinese Canadian. I can't be one without the other."
There are ties that we can't severe. There are bonds we can't renounce. In doing this either/or, you have already lost your own personal integrity.
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;
昭君， 很多人以为柴可夫斯基的“一八一二序曲”是纪念1812年战争而写的，但根据维基百科，“the 1812 Overture was written by Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armee at the Battle of Borodino in 1812”。 (曲子是为纪念俄罗斯对抗拿破仑推进莫斯科的军队写的，所以曲子里有法国国歌 La Marsillaise 和俄罗斯的旧国歌 God Save the Czar 的片段。)
