This book is about the other, that conceptual reality we increasingly encounter in our daily lives as the global village manifests itself in Canada and beyond. The other presents values and lifestyles different from our own, requiring a sharpening of our perception of self and of those around us.

The collection of essays in Intercultural Dialgue: Canada and the Other takes a hard look at how these perceptions are revealed through intercultural dialogue in the literary, political and sociological aspects of Canadian society. The dilemma of the other, or alterity, is addressed through the eyes of the immigrant, through francophone writers, through minority people struggling with loyalty in a federal society, through statistics, through sport and through a bold presentation of an alternative political model.

Beyond simply recognizing and neutralizing the alterity in our lives, we are challenged to celebrate it, to consider otherness a meeting point of different cultures, and to embrace multiculturalism as an opportunity for personal and cultural growth.

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Martin Howard lectures in the French Department at the University College Cork, Ireland. A former Government of Ireland Research Fellow and recipient of the Prix du Quebec, he is Secretary of the International Council for Canadian Studies and Past-President of the Asssociation for Canadian Studies in Ireland. His research focuses on Canadian Studies and the Sociolinguistics of contemporary French.