Babies Vs Immigrants Vs Democracy
The 2006 Census, which was contracted out to Lockheed-Martin, a defence contracting firm, with ties to Homeland Security in the good old U.S. of A, by the former Liberal government of Paul Martin, seems to indicate this:
Clearly, Canada is a large country with a small population in a small world with a large population. In the interests of maintaining a working population, immigration is our only option.
Now, I happen to believe that democracy is a desirable political system, that most people want to live in democracies, and that given a chance, people will want to maintain the laws and norms of a democratic country and resist the urge to vote for fascist governments like Stephen Harper's New Conservative Government of Canada (haha - just kidding - don't have a cow, white Christian rightwing man). Essentially, I really don't think you need to be born in Canada to appreciate it. In fact, I think there's a strong case to argue the opposite. Personally, I would point to the current Prime Minister and the New Conservative Government of Canada to argue that strong case, too.... yaddayadda... blahblah... okay - I'll stop now.
So, that's my position on this whole native birthrate upping/vs immigrant population boosting conundrum that seems to have so many on the political right quaking in their Guccis. I don't care about Canada being only for the people who are here now - and their descendents. I really don't. I believe our system of government, our way of life, may well be enhanced by people coming here from countries where there is less freedom because they appreciate what we have - so much more than we do. They know a different way of life and I think we can trust them to recognize "better" when they see it. Us? I'm not so sure. So many Canadians seem to me to want the worst of America the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to come to Canada the Great White North that I wonder what sort of citizen we are breeding here anyway, us, native-born Canadians.
More to the point - do I really want their birthrates to go up? No. Not really. Thanks, but no thanks. We have enough stupid people for now, I'm sure.
Besides, the argument is moot. There is absolutely no way the native-born Canadian birthrate will be high enough to preclude the need for immigrants. I doubt, given our initial population, it ever would have been high enough, had we all had families of ten. And the fact is, the people who came here from the British Isles and Europe were hardly the upper crust of society in the Old World. They were people needing a fresh start, who wanted a hope in hell of making a life for themselves in a new world. Those are the people most of us who are third generation Canadians on down are descended from. Would we really be that much better a country if we had more of us? I mean, c'mon. Does any country benefit from scads of Irish story-tellers, Scottish penny-pinchers, English twits?
All of them drunk?
So why the search for people of a certain economic background and particular race to immigrate - or not immigrate - here, now? Well, I wonder. At a party on the weekend, we were discussing how people see themselves, politically, and someone mentioned that her father, an electrician, saw himself as a Conservative because he lived in a 4-bdrm suburban house in Toronto, owned a cottage, two cars, put a couple of kids through university, and was retired on a good pension. BUT he was also the beneficiary of a lifetime of solid employment due to the fact that he belonged to a very strong union.
He was a union man, an abolute believer in his union's duty to do right by him, voting Conservative because of his economic success in life and his standing in his community. From hand-me-downs growing up to moderate wealth in retirement. It's a good life here for the working man, it seems. Politically, it just seems to have nothing to do with reality.
Well, I think there's an analogy to be made between that electrician and Canada. It's about how Canada came to be what it is today, and how it sees itself now that it's here. And I think we are fooling ourselves about who we really are.
For instance, I saw on the news that other day a story about another plant closing here, textiles or something, and the people working there all looked to be from somewhere other than here. They sounded like it, too. Which made me wonder about the irony of those people seeking a better life here - economically - only to find out shortly thereafter that the plant they were working in was shifting its operations back to where they'd come from, like maybe India, or Thailand, or even - China.
Because China's the elephant in the global village - isn't it. Capitalism hasn't freed anybody in China - it's just made sure all the manufacturing jobs have shifted over to it. But what needs pointing out about this economic powerhouse is this:
Nobody emigrates to China. Not from here, anyway. China's a communist country. Nobody goes there to start over. Economic opportunites aren't worth it. I doubt you can emigrate there, anyway.
Meanwhile, all manner of rich businessmen from here do business with China, in China, but they don't move there. Why would they? Again - it's a communist country. So this emerging economic power isn't the sort of place anyone wants to commit to by emigrating to it, it's just the sort of place with which rich people from here want to do business. Meanwhile, I'm sure many of the people they are using to get their business done, would prefer living in a free country, a democracy, Canada.
And thanks to this backhanded economic slap at democracy, even the lucky people who do immigrate here who aren't wealthy people, can find themselves out of work soon after landing some because, irony of ironies, the plant they were working in has shifted its operations to a place where it can pay low wages and operate without the level of health and safety standards we afford working people here in this country, so that when they retire, they can vote for the kinds of federal governments that allow more of the same.
I don't know. Is anybody in charge of anything anymore that has to do with economics and the unsustainability of this Global Village - NOT - that we are living in as a large country with a small population but lots and lots of great social infrastructure to let go for the price of a cheaper Christmas?
One thing is for sure, we are not the country we once were. We do not welcome people wanting a fresh start in a new land of opportunity. In fact, we seem to be squandering like fools what previous generations bequeathed us and allowing Corporate America to tell us how it's going to be from here on in until we have to work well past retirement and into the grave to keep our heads above water.
So what should we do? Obviously, we are not going to reproduce ourselves in numbers sufficient to not require an almost open door immigration policy, and besides, we're the people squandering the legacy and pretty much ensuring a hard life for ourselves and our children down the road. Maybe the best thing for us would be a goodly number of the world's poor and desperate people from undemocratic countries to show us how it's done. Maybe we should start smuggling poor, unenfranchised Chinese laborers into Canada to work at an absolute minimum of $10.00/hour for and absolute maximum of seven hours per day with an hour off for lunch and two fifteen minute breaks and three weeks of holidays per year and all statutory holidays off with pay - instead of buying stuff here produced by those same people in China where there is no freedom - before we have no reason for even poor people to want to immigrate here.
Although, I bet most of them would want to - just for the chance to live in a democracy.
