Discrimination based on race and gender and sexual orientation are history, too, for the most part. Photograph by: Paul Mansfield , Getty Images

An extraordinary transformation has occurred, or more precisely appeared above the waterline. It is a change so epochal, so profound, you’d think Canadians would be in the streets, cheering. But then, this is Canada: Celebratory back patting is not our cup of tea.

The big news, which will never make a bold headline, is just this: Across this country, from coast to coast to coast, there is now a nearly unanimous view that the old, divisive, angry debates about matters of individual faith and morals are over. And we’re not going back there. Not any time soon, probably not ever.

Discrimination based on race and gender and sexual orientation are history, too, for the most part. There are still racists, homophobes and gender-haters in Canada, of course. And there are aberrations (Afro-centric schools in Toronto, for example). But the shared expectation of equality under the law for all, is now so firmly embedded as to be foundational. This is something interesting, unique — and new.

We actually, finally may be living in a just society, as various past prime ministers dreamt we one day would. Not only that, but we live in a society in which the shared idea of equal rights spans the political spectrum, and also our country’s vast geography.

Too Pollyannaish by half? It sounds it. But consider the facts on the ground.

Last fall, Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak was poised to depose the weary, idea-bereft Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty in a rout — or so the polls suggested. Then Hudak made his campaign about ethnicity — pitting native-born Canadians (mainly of European origin), against immigrants, (mainly of Asian, South Asian or African origin), referring to the latter as “foreigners” and griping about subsidies given to companies who hire them.

The strategy backfired spectacularly, derailing Hudak’s campaign. It was eerily reminiscent of the gaffe made by Hudak’s predecessor, John Tory, in 2007, when he went to the mat for more public funding of separate religious schools. Ontarians turned thumbs down on that for the same reason: It smacked of discrimination.

A week ago in Alberta, voters delivered a similar message. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, leading in the polls, was side-swiped by “bozo outbreaks” among her candidates. In responding to the remarks, one directed at gays and the other racially tinged, Smith failed to forcefully denounce them.

She expected, no doubt, that her repeated, categorical statements that she is pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage and adamantly opposed to any kind of discrimination, would be enough to smooth the waters. It wasn’t. Albertans heard a whiff of something they didn’t like and returned Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives with a huge majority.

In Parliament last week, Conservative backbench MP Stephen Woodworth caused a furor with a motion to strike a committee to consider when a human life, for purposes of the Criminal Code, begins. If life is determined to begin before birth, of course, then abortion de facto becomes illegal.

Woodworth’s motion has no chance of success: All four major federal parties are united against him. And this is the truly astonishing thing: Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gordon O’Connor, the Conservative whip, denounced his motion.