Well, ok, but you are conflating two separate aspects of the labour market: the demand for labour and the desire to lower labour costs.
The demand for labour is what is supposed to govern labour costs. Without temporary foreign workers of various kinds and the flood of lower-skilled immigrants, it would almost impossible to hire anyone for minimum wage in much of this country and employers would have to increase wages and benefits. And in other parts of the country we wouldn't need to import low skilled immigrants were it not for the generosity of the various social welfare support programs.
This is something I personally know a lot about because my wages, my whole career was knocked down by the latter.
My imperfect understanding is your job has something to do with hi-tech, and the wages have been lowered across the board there by immigration and temporary workers.
Right - but in the US the wealth gap has increased, meaning the increase has gone to the wealthier in a greater proportion.
Because they've sold out to the wealthy who have adjusted the tax code to their benefit.
Canadian business, though, has historically been small-minded and conservative in their thinking which is a reason to import high-end investors especially tech.
A better way would be to remove corporate welfare and protectionism and let business sink or swim on its own efforts. The lazy would soon be gone, and unable to even hire employees. I don't mean eliminate tariffs here. I'm talking about things like government subsidies for relocating call centres from one place to another, or paying for Tim Horton's to install new fridges or helping the banks buy new computers. The damn banks don't need our help, and neither does Tim Hortons. Cut the red tape, change the anti-business attitude, simplify the tax code. And if Bombardier or SNC Lavelin goes bankrupt so be it.
I think it should be taught, and can be made interesting but does it resonate ?
If taught right. How many spoiled kids today even realize that we're about a century away from kids their age, and I mean like 8 year olds, working in the coal mines, mills and factories? How about teaching that, and that it's still the case in many parts of the world, and explaining how Canada did away with that so they can have the benefit of sitting there and learning things in a comfortable environment?
2) Shared community. I grew up in a pretty small town ~30K. The dichotomy is that the towns are friendlier but also more hostile and even violent than the bigger places. I am on a Facebook group for the place I came from and I can tell you that the "small town mentality" is a problem, but also there are connections and support you can't have in a big city. There are connections that go way back but you can also get the **** kicked out of you by a stranger a lot more easily IMO.
Well, the good thing about small towns is people know each other. That's also the bad thing. I'm not trying to laud small towns as the preeminent place to live. I'm just saying they have retained more of a sense of Canada than cities where half the population is foreign born.
3) Polite respect and conservatism: there you go. You are echoing exactly what I have been saying Canada is about but using slightly different words and I agree 100%. Polite respect and conservatism is, to me, akin to "welcoming and pragmatic". I also happen to think that "caring conservatism" is a better political fit to Canada than Liberalism is. This, to me, is why Mulroney was the single most popular politician we had in the 20th century ... until things went bad. Ha ha ha.
Mulroney had charisma, something we rarely see in politicians here, but was betrayed by his own arrogance and corruption as well as the world economy. It's difficult to describe what Canada means in a few words but a sense of shared values and history is crucial. When you grow up in a country you tend to share a lot of the same experiences with others who grow up there, even in different parts of the country. Who in the generation who were around then can not fondly recall the excitement of the Canada-USSR series? Why do Canadians aspire to have cottages and to go out into the woods to snowshoe, ski, hunt and fish? Is that shared by newcomers, do you think?
Hegel (I think) felt that institutions had to be created to suit the times, and this is what we are talking about. If it's about renewing our implicit contract with Canada then we have to find a way. Order, authority, justice, work, responsibility, freedom are the conservative side of it and pluralism, respect for differences and social support are the liberal side.
Yeah, but the country keeps changing due to a flood of newcomers and the continued fascination from our political class for whatever becomes popular in the United States.
I will concur that Canada isn't able to discuss immigration policies dispassionately but the PPC - if they had any brains - would have recognized the minefield and scoured their party for far-right types before starting. They also use the language of conspiracy theories. They are a non-starter.
I'm not a PPC supporter nor an admirer of Bernier. But every new party has difficulty weeding out the people they don't want in their ranks. The existing parties have large staffs and have had decades of experience and yet every election they wind up having to dismiss various candidates for racist, homophobic, antisemitic or Islamophobic social media statements. And if the PPC had been led by a more charismatic anglo guy like Kevin O'Leary they would be a force to be reckoned with.
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