Source: The Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=9c1d8f58-cf05-4b0a-a60b-7108a4017d4b
Are Asian-Canadians strengthening conservative or liberal values across the country?
Given that nearly half the population of Greater Vancouver has origins in Asia, this is anything but what some like to call an "academic" -- that is, theoretical -- question.
It's exactly the kind of question British Columbia academics especially should be researching. This province is one of the most dynamic multicultural, multifaith laboratories history has even seen.
But, outside of a few valiant efforts, Canadian researchers are avoiding exploring the values and attitudes Asian immigrants are bringing to the country, particularly through religion. The reasons seem to be institutional lethargy and fear of offending.
This, even while less than half of the population of the city of Vancouver speaks English as a first language. And two out of five Greater Vancouverites have Asian ancestry (one in five across the province.)
More than 13 per cent of Greater Vancouverites, according to the census, follow an Asian religion, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism and Islam (the latter is extremely strong in Asian countries such as India and Indonesia.)
Still, unless I'm missing some major research out there, most Canadian scholars seem remarkably ignorant about what Asian-rooted British Columbians, particularly those who attend various temples, believe about a host of moral, economic and political issues.