Richard Brennan, Toronto Star, March 27, 2008
The federal government would be making a “huge mistake” by turning its back on immigrants just because they don’t have a particular skill, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.
“I wouldn’t want to shut out folks who don’t have a skill,” he told reporters yesterday, referring to the Conservative government’s proposal to streamline the process for immigrants bringing skills desperately needed in Canada.
McGuinty said if those kinds of barriers had been in place, his family would have never emigrated to Canada from Ireland during the 1845-1852 potato famine.
“We had no skills, we couldn’t speak English and we were dirt poor. But we were looking for opportunity and we brought with us a solid work ethic,” he said, during a tour of a carpentry class.
The government has included changes to the Immigration Act in a key budget implementation bill. As a result, the changes are considered a confidence matter, which means if the bill is voted down it could trigger an election.
“I want to make sure we continue to strike a balance in terms of having our doors open,” McGuinty said. “We won’t be able to grow our workforce unless we have immigration. We’re just not having as many kids as we used to.”
Critics complain the amendments would give sweeping powers to the immigration minister.
“Our government has two objectives. The first is to bring more newcomers here to fill the jobs and be reunited with their families. The second is to do it faster,” Immigration Minister Diane Finley told the Commons this month. According to the few details available, the government wants to establish a “just-in-time” immigration system to “quickly process” skilled immigrants so they can make an “immediate contribution to the economy.”
The critics fear this kind of selection process will slam the door on people wanting to reunite with their families, or others who don’t have a specific skill.
Meanwhile, the federal Conservatives’ assault on the Ontario government continued yesterday with an accusation that McGuinty ran a “sponsorship-style” slush fund.
When McGuinty questioned the wisdom of immigration reforms, he was met with a stinging retort from Tory MP Pierre Poilievre, who has been the federal government’s designated McGuinty critic.
Poilievre called reporters to defend the immigration changes.
“All Dalton McGuinty has ever done on immigration is run a sponsorship-style slush fund that cost him his citizenship minister,” Poilievre told The Canadian Press. “So we won’t be taking any advice from him on immigration.”
He was referring to Mike Colle, who resigned last year when it was revealed his department gave $32.4 million to multicultural groups with no oversight procedures.
Original article
(Posted on March 28, 2008)
Comments
The selection process has to be more stringent. Working one’s way into any menial task is competitive. It’s too easy to be lazy this day and age. The government will make up for the lack of work ethic and sense of responsibility.
Posted by at 8:50 PM on March 28
What an idiot. Comparing Irish immigrants of a hundred years ago to todays immigrants.
The skills needed to work, both technical and interpersonal,have changed in a hundred years. On the racial side, whites can melt into one society, but Asians, Middle Easterners, Hispanics, and blacks, by their relative numbers, are always shifting critical masses.
Posted by at 9:00 PM on March 28
Did they ever think that just maybe people were having fewer kids because A) there were so many immigrants taking away any child’s chance at a future? B) there are enough people in the country already? C) robots can do much of the work humans used to do? D) THE ECONOMY ISN’T EVERYTHING?
Posted by Diamed at 9:23 PM on March 28
Poor Canada. Has the same sickness that we have….Why is it that far too many Irish defend the nonwhite “immigrants” from the 3rd world? Why is that? Aren’t they White or suppose to be? I have noticed this over and again. Teddy boy and this creep and so many others that I can’t think of right now. Watch for it the next time some idiot defends this kind of thing.
Posted by at 9:28 PM on March 28
McGuinty IS a bit of an idiot, but I still feel some gratitude for his refusal to legitimize sharia-based dispute resolution in Ontario. (Of course he did this in the usual liberal non-discriminatory way, by refusing state recognition to ALL ‘faith-based’ dispute resolution, but everyone knows that sharia was the target).
Posted by at 10:07 PM on March 28
“The federal government would be making a “huge mistake” by turning its back on immigrants just because they don’t have a particular skill, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.”
If he’s not certifiably insane it’s only because a board certified psychiatrist hasn’t examined him yet. However, to most of us the above statement above tells us all we need to know about this sick elitist.
Posted by Ranger at 10:49 PM on March 28
“The federal government would be making a “huge mistake” by turning its back on immigrants just because they don’t have a particular skill, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.”
If he’s not certifiably insane it’s only because a board certified psychiatrist hasn’t examined him yet. However, to most of us the above statement tells us all we need to know about this sick elitist.
Posted by Ranger at 10:51 PM on March 28
I am of scot-irish-english stock. I find that idiot’s comparison of my hard working ancestors to worthless, disease -ridden third worlders very offensive. My people came LEGALLY, they did NOT sneak into this country, and they did not try to bankrupt the system collecting welfare and turning the hospitals into their personal doctor’s office. My people came here and worked hard for everything they received.
Posted by at 11:57 PM on March 28
Speaking about his early ancestors — “We had no skills, we couldn’t speak English and we were dirt poor. But we were looking for opportunity and we brought with us a solid work ethic”
In 1845, a real skill was simply having a strong back to work as a farmhand. There were no welfare checks being deposited in their bank accounts, nor free hospitalization, nor subsidized housing, nor affirmative action policies. They had a choice to either work or starve.
“I wouldn’t want to shut out folks who don’t have a skill”
This is the most asinine statement I’ve ever heard coming from a politician, but if that’s your personal opinion, McGuinty, then why don’t you support them?? Taxpayers are tired of carrying their load due to your willingness to spend our money on immigrants who serve no other purpose other than take up space in our country.
This Canadian blogger also has a few words on the same story:
http://canadianimmigrationreform.blogspot.com/
Posted by at 12:38 AM on March 29
This is how Anglophone Canada dies. Sooner or later Quebec, to save their own identity, will opt out of this insanity and seperate. If They do, they may survive. Anglophone Canada, the once proud entity that fought with distinction in both world wars and tamed the world’s harshest and second largest landmass will be a forgotten, the sacraficices of its pioneering people forgotten with them. The epitaph: Killed by our own elites.
Posted by White Canadian at 1:00 AM on March 29
Poor Canada. Has the same sickness that we have
They have it even worse. Way worse. If you offend the wrong grievance group, you will be thrown in jail. Google “Ernst Zundel” sometime if you don’t believe me.
Posted by qwerty at 2:53 AM on March 29
This historically illiterate Canadian Premier forgets one basic fact — his Irish ancestors arriving in Canada (or the U.S.) HAD to have a strong work ethic or they would have literally starved here, too! The immigrants who arrive in Canada, Finland, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, etc. etc. have the highest per capita welfare rates and medical needs of any group their age. Evidence shows the even the most militant Islamo-fascists in London REFUSED to work and encouraged other Muslims to apply for all the welfare they could take from the system they swore to destroy. Britain’s (and Canada’s, too?) willingness to now tolerate polygamy and pay welfare benefits to the multiple wives and children of such immigrants allows them to — in the words of one Australian imman — to literally BREED the infidels into extinction. What’s even more incredible, idiots that this Canadian premier will eventually be giving these vagabonds the knives to slit their own Anglo-Saxon throats!
Posted by Publius at 8:58 AM on March 29
So, Mr. McGuinty, if you want people with no skills, what is the point? Do you just need bodies to fill the empty spaces in your county? Do you even realize that the tax-paying public will have to pay for them? You must exist in that fantasy world where our American leaders live. Speaking of the Irish emigrating during the famine, three of my great-grandparents came from the Emerald Isle. However, they started a blacksmith business and never relied on government handouts.
Posted by June at 9:12 AM on March 29
The comments of Dalton McGuinty, certainly one of the weirdest candidates ever to occupy the office of «premier» of Ontario, are, to say the least, «inexact.» The comparison between his own ancestry and the Third World immigrants currently on our doorstep does not bear the burden of proof.
In the first instance, McGuinty states that his ancestors could not speak English. Perhaps, but, one must recall that McGuinty himself is half Francophone - but, curiously, he does not appear to be able to speak that language. If his ancestors could not speak English, he ought to clarify which side of his family he is referring to.
If he is referring to his Irish forebears, the matter of who could and could not speak English in mid 19th century Ireland is an unresolved question. Maurice O’Sullivan, on his way to Dublin in 1927, recalled his distress (in his book «Twenty Years A’Growing»), when, while in Cork («Rebel Cork»), at the amount of English that was being spoken. I believe that McGuinty’s Irish ancestors «could» speak English, and, were probably bi - lingual in both languages, by the time they arrived in the Ottawa Valley.
Certainly, there were tests for linguistic competence, for immigrants travelling to the United States, if not then, certainly by the end of the 19th century, and some Irish did not have the opportunity to emigrate because they did not have «the English.»
His statement that his ancestors had no skills is also susceptible to interpretation; the Irish of the mid 19th century were divided between an large cohort of the landless «urban» (in fact small town), poor, and the landed urban peasantry. The urban poor had no resources, but, living off the urban Anglo - Irish, they had and they needed English, if they wanted to be fed.
The rural poor, cultivating small holdings, largely in the West (Galway, Roscommon and Clare), may not have been as well versed in English, but they knew how to farm. And their abilities as husbandmen had, or probably were, an determining criteria, with regard to whether they would walk up the gangway of the immigrant ship at Cork, Dublin, Southhampton or Bristol, or not.
My own ancestors, originally from Counties Galway and Clare, who emigrated to Québec, the United States and canada, were farmers, who also pursued small business entreprises «on the side» (my fathers mother’s family were the second richest family in Headford Village, Galway), the farmed, and also fired homemade brick, which they sold to the Protestant «builders» of Galway Town. They were also literate, and had begun to lose their Irish quite early; my paternal grandmother only «lapsed» into Irish when she was angry or upset, apparently.
Furthermore, regarding their lack of skills, many Irish, who arrived in the Ottawa Valley, quit the land after a few years, because it was infertile (the land to the west and south of Ottawa tends to be rocky and poor), and became lumbermen. The term «Irish Shiner» is derivative of the French word «chêneurs» which referred to lumbermen who cut oak, an very hard wood, as opposed to the softer, and more yielding White and red Pine.
Furthermore, while there was assistance for the newcomers, it was not eternal. The colonial government gave the «colonists» three years of provisions, seed, some implements, and a tract of land. After three years, good or bad harvests regardless, they were on their own.
The situation is very different today. The swarms of immigrants arriving in North America are ill - equipped to do anything, apart from living off the system. And voting for the party (McGuinty’s Liberal Party), that, in concert with the federal government, allowed them to come. The rural small holders of Hyderabad or Tamil Karnataka cannot immediately adapt to the big input high cost techniques of modern agri - farming. Nor do they want to. It is an phenomenon observed time and again across time; when an rural folk emigrate to an industrial, urbanized socio - economic context, they leave their agricultural antecedents behind them. Forever.
What Dalton McGuinty is really proposing is that Ontario, in cooperation with the federal government, import an landless, shiftless, Third World proletariat. The idea that one will, that one should, that one must, import people who will not participate, contribute or produce, is quite remarkable. Truly, the late Jacques Ellul spoke the truth when he wrote that the «disease of the modern world is a disease of the mind.»
Posted by at 12:07 PM on March 29
“No particular skills” is code for “permanent welfare dependants who will support the socialist occupation government.”
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:59 PM on March 29
The Liberals welcome non-Whites because they know they will vote for them. As for the 1850’s Irish they didn’t give them welfare.
Posted by at 2:24 PM on March 29
His family came from Ireland and they couldn’t speak English!?
Posted by Frank at 4:48 PM on March 29
Did the Irish march in the streets waving Irish flags and chant “gringos go home”?
Posted by Citizen at 12:33 PM on March 30
>>>The Liberals welcome non-Whites because they know they will vote for them. As for the 1850’s Irish they didn’t give them welfare.
Something the liberals in Canada, and most certainly in our United States — are very careful to disregard. Here we hear that garbage about our “hard working Mexicans… coming to do jobs Americans won’t take.” A phrase best summed up as bull droppings.
Not pointed out by our liberal lunatics — the Latino immigrants ARE often disease ridden. While European immigrants had to come through Ellis Island — checked there to ensure they weren’t bringing diseases as unwanted “gifts.” Nor did our European immigrants get welfare benefits or free healthcare like the human trash flowing over the Mexican-American border.
As to “jobs Americans won’t do” — a phrase meant to conceal the reality that employers would rather hire illegals and pay them substandard wages. With the effect of saddling Americans with a permanent underclass of people fit for little more than manual labor. No. The MAJORITY of their children, even first and some second generation Hispanics are NOT, EMPHATICALLY NOT doing all that much better than their parents and grandparents. Visit some of our Texas schools and see for yourself if you need an explanation. It’s in the basic mentality — NOT in the quality of the teachers. I know. One of our neighbors is a teacher. The stories she can relate about those little brown darlings would curl your hair.
Posted by Fed Up at 8:35 AM on March 31
In the 1850’s, unskilled Irish immigrants could always work on railroad construction or in agriculture, which were both unskilled and manpower-intensive. Irish immigrants did most of the railroad work in the US (except on the Pacific coast, where it was mostly Chinese), so I imagine Canada would be much the same.
Additionally, at that time, there was a genuine labor shortage in North America, and not merely today’s propaganda hype by corporate robber-barons drooling at the way labor arbitrage really lets them stick it to the middle class.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:16 PM on March 31
If I hear just one more lie — that immigrants are “good” for one’s country… I may puke! Because by now, most Americans, and surely a lot of Canadians… have had ample opportunity to learn the truth. That having your nation INVADED hordes of useless, unskilled non-White immigrants is asking for (and watching) the slow and inexorable death of your culture and nation!
Once arrived, immigrants will generally be a perpetual problem. Most are unskilled, ignorant, uneducated, fit only for manual labor. (Those Somalis, Bantus, Burrundis, for example.) They see how White native people live; are eaten up by envy and jealousy… then suddenly crime spikes in those communities “blessed” with cultural diversity. Of course, need for providing lifelong welfare support for the unskilled immigrants is only to be expected. No problem. Just tax the working class Whites a little heavier. Force local business owners to employ and train the third-worlders. If in their abysmal ignorance they turn out to be virtually useless to the company… call their wasted wages an extra tax levied on the firm.
But please, don’t expect your Dalton McGuinty types to admit this. They are never the ones to suffer from the massive downside of the immigration picture. That’s for the commoners to have to endure! If any of the locals complain… no problemo! You just lean on the local educational system to start courses in that WHITE PRIVILEGE line of rubbish. Then accuse complainers of “racism” and sentence them to mandatory re-education courses like that as a fitting punishment!
Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t that something like what happened in Vietnam after that war ended? Forced attendance at state-run “re-education camps” for those unfortunate enough not to have welcomed their new liberators with open arms?
Posted by Fed Up at 12:59 PM on March 31
“In the 1850’s, unskilled Irish immigrants could always work on railroad construction or in agriculture, which were both unskilled and manpower-intensive. Irish immigrants did most of the railroad work in the US (except on the Pacific coast, where it was mostly Chinese), so I imagine Canada would be much the same.”
M.Scott
……………………………….
And, I could add, work on digging the canals — even more backbreaking and dangerous labor than the railroads. Something now largely forgotten, America once had an extensive canal system before being put out of business by the railways and highways.
(As for Canada, yes it was the same.)
Posted by ghw at 1:34 PM on April 1
