By his criticism of "official multiculturalism," Lorne Gunter implies Canada should do away with it.

I want to dispel the notion that Canada can actually afford to not have an "ism" in response to the societal reality of rapid ethno-cultural diversification and therefore, to the nation's need to protect Canada's traditional Euro-cultural mainstream.

Since 1970, official multiculturalism has played the function of Canada's program of minority culture management. For music to Gunter's ear, what he is so critical about is, in fact, a minority culture containment program of the Canadian state.

If you take Gunter's criticism at face value, you can easily be led to think that your community's mainstream culture is at risk of being taken over by minority cultural norms and practices. You, however, only have to look around; it is evident that all that's important and powerful remains as what Gunter would recognize as Canadian as ever.

In other words, official multiculturalism has worked brilliantly as mainstream culture sustainment while minority cultures are kept in their assigned place.

In fact, the everyday norm at work is exactly what Gunter wants to see: "Private interaction between mainstream Canadian culture and the cultures of new Canadians will lead to compromise by both, a compromise that will blunt each party's extremist elements."

These everyday compromises are always very protective of mainstream norms and practices anyway, and minority cultures don't really feature or matter much where the mainstream holds court in all areas of the community.

Perhaps Gunter should be more thankful for than critical of official multiculturalism.

Eugene Ip, Edmonton