Why do Canadian men marry foreign women?

Of course, the most obvious answer is: Canadian men marry foreign women because they fall in love with them.

A foreigner is someone who comes from another country. When new-comers take out Canadian citizenship papers, they are no longer foreigners. They are Canadians.

Even if , for some reason, they neglect to become citizens, the next generation, their children, born in Canada, would be Canadians. There are just not that many foreign women in the smaller centers around the country for Canadian men to marry.

However, if you located couples consisting of a Canadian man and a woman born in a different country, and asked the husband why he had chosen this particular lady to be his wife, he might give one of the following replies. No doubt he would preface each reply with, " I fell in love with her and....

* she was born into a culture not too different from that of Canada, such as the United States or Western Europe."

* we met at church, or at the  mosque or synagogue. Our religious values are strong and they are an important part of our lives. Now we will be able to share them."

* we work in the same profession. We have similar ethical values. We support each other at home and at work and it's great to be able to able to exchange ideas."

* my best friend as I was growing up came from her country. I spent a lot of time with his family and felt very comfortable there. I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

* we have known each other a long time, all through high school and university. We've had differences, but we've worked them out."

These marriages have an excellent chance of enduring. The couples are mature and they have more in common than they have differences.

Of course, there are others who would give replies similar to these:

* "She was real cute, I mean an actual knock-out!"

* "I wanted to see what was under all those robes and veils."

* " My friends were all getting married and I hadn't had any luck with Canadian girls".

* I had just broken up with a Canadian girl and I wanted someone totally different".

* "My family told me not to do it, and I was sick and tired of them trying to boss me around!"

This latter group of men are immature, their reasons superficial and insufficient for trying to built a life together. Sadly, they'll probably be a part of the divorce statistics before long, and that would be the case no matter who they married.

On a personal note, my husband was born in Canada. My three sons are married to Canadian girls. However, for a mature Canadian man to meet and spend enough time with a foreign girl to consider marriage would be just fine with me. After all, all of our ancestors, with the exception of native people, were immigrants at one time.