X is for Xenophobia

Xenophobia is a fear of foreigners. We will segue to immigration on this concern.

What are the parties’ stance on immigration? None of the party platforms has one specifically on Immigration at least not easily identified on their platform site. But a recent questionnaire found all 5 parties (including the Green) answered the question “How many more immigrants should Canada admit?”

NDP, Green and Liberals – Somewhat more

Conservatives and Bloc – About the same.

Each had a somewhat different reason for wanting immigration to continue. The Liberals said:

With declining domestic birth rates and an aging population, Canada is already facing critical skills shortages that will reach alarming levels unless we find a sustainable solution.

If we are to attract much-needed skilled labour and professionals from around the world, we must: invest in our immigration system to ensure it can deal with increasing demand; encourage skilled immigrants to make Canada their home and realize that welcoming their immediate families is a vital part of making Canada an attractive and viable destination. [p. 3]Source: Alan Tonks Report (Summer 2008)The editors question the purpose of immigration to acquire “skilled labour” but rather to acquire “cheap labour”. What we see is that most of our industries have now been shipped to other countries where labour is cheaper. For example, even our technical labour such as engineering and design work is being sent to Korean and Thailand and our call centres are now in India. Canadians at home are not skilled enough to answer telephone queries? We have almost no (grand scale) manufacturing left in Canada and even are auto industry has been disseminated.

The true fact is that while immigrants may have skills from their country when they come to Canada they are essentially “cheap labour” and are working for minimum wage in restaurants, shops, taxi cabs and so forth. Let’s not kid ourselves, we all see it. There are qualified engineers, doctors, nurses and other professionals from around the world who are working as janitors in Canada. Bringing cheap labour to Canada benefits no one but the businesses hiring the cheap labour. It is essential an exploitation of individuals desperate for a better life being lured to Canada under false pretences. At the same time it keeps the minimum wage down which impacts the rest of Canadians.

Canada’s top 5 exports (in 2010) were:

#1 Petroleum products 64 billion $
#2 Passenger vehicles (cars & Vans) 37 billion $
#3 Car parts & accessories 16 Billion $
#4 Aluminum products 8 billion $
#5 Lumber 7 billion $
Fastest growing exports
#1 Sugar 43 million; #2 Zinc 1.4 billion; #3 Precious Metals 700 million; #4 Oil drilling equipment 1 billion; #5 Copper 2 billion