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Carolyn Wilkins, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, used the theme “Strength in Diversity” to frame remarks to a Winnipeg audience this week about the current state of the Canadian economy.

“Strength in diversity” is one of those slogans it’s impossible to be against, especially in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Ottawa. Mr. Trudeau has tweeted on various occasions, usually post-Trump-provocation occasions, that “our diversity is our strength.” That wording implies it is our only strength. But were we not also strong — true North, strong and free, even? — when we were less diverse? Is diversity truly necessary for strength? Japan isn’t very diverse, yet it has the world’s fourth-biggest economy and an apparently very secure culture.

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If the data somehow showed diversity wasn’t a source of strength, would we give up on it and pursue strength by homogeneity? Of course not. We take the view that people from round the world should be free to come here and share the blessings of this country and we shouldn’t ration entrants by race or ethnicity — though we should and do ration them, very strictly, by labour market skills (as even Donald Trump has noticed). We only want the diversity that comes from letting in highly qualified manpower, in other words, manpower that, un-diversely, is like that already living here.