Hi, this is Dan Bilefsky. I am writing this week’s Canada Letter while Ian Austen is on vacation at his cottage in Ontario.

Since returning to Canada about two years ago, after 28 years abroad, I have been struck by our relative embrace of minorities. In my previous home in Europe, populism is bubbling, along with calls in some quarters for immigrants to assimilate — or go home.

In Canada, one group vividly embodying the “Canadian Dream” is the Sikh community, which I recently got to know better while reporting a profile of Jagmeet Singh, a practicing Sikh, who is hoping to unseat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the upcoming national election.

While Mr. Singh faces an uphill struggle, the rise of the Sikh community as a political force in Canada is nevertheless remarkable, and all the more so given the initial chilly reception Sikh immigrants received here.