Canadian citizenship in the imagined future

Citizenship, encompassing the related issues of identity and equality, is impacted by multiple factors and is constantly transforming. It follows then that what we define as citizenship today will be different in the future. Working on the principle of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1997) that language precedes reality, this study uses a unique combination of personal, academic and professional knowledge and experience of the 2004 cohort of the part-time graduate students enrolled in the Immigrationa and Settlement Studies program at Ryerson University, Toronto to construct a vision of Canadian citizenship in the imagined future, and recommend ways of achieving it. The participants highlighted political participation and education as the two key strategies to attain a vision of an inclusive Canada.