Well its obvious in the past liberal governments encouraged immigration to pander to the ethnic vote, the idea was that those people let in under liberal governments would later go on to vote liberal. Also liberal politicians are generally afraid to do anything that would seem to restrict immigration for fear of being labeled as racist, as largely these politicians are older white men.
You'd love Australia, then, where the Prime Minister speaks her mind in no uncertain terms, and screens out all but the most desirable immigrants. I must admit, a direct, no-nonsense politician is a rare delight.
I'm just saying that there are a lot of think tanks and very smart people who present the view that too much immigration or immigration at current levels is not sustainable, you may not agree with their views, but that viewpoint is out there.
I wasn't aware that think tanks argue against immigration. If you could direct me to their work I'd be grateful. The only analyses I have seen conclude that if Canada cannot or will not produce the babies that will grow to become taxpayers, then immigration must fill the void.
You're right that the government must invest in infrastructure to accommodate the new people. Not to do so is short-sighted,
But you make Canada sound like it's crumbling. Is it that bad? I've seen only the west coast for the past ten years, so I can't judge.
I'm not saying Canada never had well paying jobs, every country has those. I was just saying that these jobs were pretty tough to get and not in high numbers. Before the economic collapse in the U.S a lot of Canadians with advanced degrees or high education would head south, the so called brain drain. Canada is still largely a resource based economy and I think in terms of developed countries the investment in R&D and technology would be the lowest in Canada.
In terms of what you said at the end, I think it would be better if the government offered tax incentives for people to have children. I'm not sure if large population increases have really increased quality of life in places like Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. Endless traffic and gridlock, horrible wait times for medical care.
The government sure likes to bring in a lot of people but then doesn't want to fund things like infrastructure, education and health care to maintain quality. Just look at the state of infrastructure in Canada, its pretty sad, adding 250,000 people a year without massive investments will only make it worse. Also countries like Japan are also having an aging population but are not encouraging mass immigration.
Japan may be making a big mistake, not renewing its population by means of immigration. But they have problems with xenophobia, I hear from friends who have lived there, and so are less accepting of foreigners coming there to live. Now Japan is suffering from deflation, because the older Japanese are buying less. No one invests in anything because the price will be lower tomorrow. And fewer people are paying taxes because they are retiring. Japan is not the best model on which to base an argument against immigration.
But back to the think tanks. I'd like to do some more reading, if you can direct me to their work.
