Immigration, Jobs, Labour Shortages, and Short Sighted Right Wing Ideas

Consider Canada's current labour shortage. Consider how we got to the point where we no longer have enough workers to supply all the jobs in Canada. Consider that our economy will not perform at the level it could because we don't have enough workers. Consider the growth at all costs agenda of the business class in Canada and then recall the Reform Party's platform which called for a 40% reduction in immigration to Canada. Remember that current Prime Minister Stephen Harper was policy chief for the Reform Party at that time. Recall the anti-immigrant rhetoric of many right-wingers. I would ask you to consider the kind of thinking and world-view sits behind policies and ideas like that.

The Liberals soaked up that bit of policy, just like the right-wing tax cutting policies implemented by then Finance Minister Paul Martin. The Liberals refused to look at their own projections and deal with an impending labour shortage in Canada. They cut tranfers to the provinces for education and they refused to increase immigration to neccessary levels.

Just for the record, my grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants. And also for the record, as Slavic people, many in Canada tried to keep them out (to the point of forming branches of the KKK to stop Slavs from coming here saying that they were too "alien" in culture and practices.

I invite you to read the following stories which discuss the effects of the kinds of xenophic policies and ideas previously espoused by the the Reform/Alliance/Conservative brain trust:

"Short-handed: Making the most of Canada's labour crunch
Plenty of work, not enough bodies
Labour woes in the West are showing up elsewhere"

Immigrate.net

even the normally right wing slavering CFIB calls for "adjusting the immigration system to be used more effectively as a source of skilled labour"

here's a story about how a Social Democratic (NDP) government approaches it's labour shortage:

SHORT-HANDED: MAKING THE MOST OF CANADA'S LABOUR CRUNCH
A blueprint for a solution
In Regina, training gives natives the tools to fix the construction industry's shortage