While research in ethnic relations has been an important focus in Canadian sociology in the past few decades, the literature on ethnic political behaviour has been fairly thin. The political participation and culture of the Canadian ethnics is a key to understanding of ethnic relations. Individuals political participation and culture are aspects of their integration into the broader society. The extent of political participation indicates also the responsiveness of the political system to the Canadian ethnics. Ethnic collective politics represents attempts on the part of the ethnic communities to influence the political process and thereby to play a fuller role in Canadian society.Using two survey sets collected in the Toronto metropolitan area, this study examines the political participation and cultures of Canadian ethnics. Following a descriptive analysis of ethnic political behaviour, the study proceeds to explain ethnic political participation and culture in terms of ethnic identification, ethnic consciousness, voluntary association participation and perceived political resources of ethnic community. The study acknowledges that these concepts together with political participation and culture are multi-dimensional, therefore various measures are used.The findings indicate that ethnic inequality in political participation persists even after statistical controls for demographic and socio-economic factors. While identification with ethnicity is associated with lower political participation, other factors, such as the structural barriers of the political process, seem to also contribute to inequality. Ethnic voluntary organizations play a significant role in individuals political behaviour. These organizations do not only provide political socialization, but also bear the potential to mobilize their members into collective action. Although to some extent individuals are unable to participate fully in politics, they are not apolitical. Those who are conscious of their ethnic status often opt for a collective political approach to improve their situation.Three sociological theories are used to interpret the results and all three theories are useful in explaining different parts of the findings. The assimilation theory provides explanation to individuals integration in politics. The class conflict theory stresses the structural aspect of inequality and explains the collective economic experience of individuals. The ethnic competition theory expands the conceptualization of ethnic political behaviour from the assimilation theory by focusing on the role of ethnic communities.