Maintaining Canada’s national identity
So let’s ignore the critics and discuss the specific reasons immigration levels should be lowered.
Most fundamentally, it has to do with social harmony and the maintenance of our Canadian national identity.
Last year, in August, just before I left the Conservative Party, I published six tweets that caused quite a controversy.
I was criticizing Justin Trudeau’s slogan that “diversity is our strength.” I attacked the Liberal cult of diversity and extreme multiculturalism.
I recognized that of course, Canada is and has always been a diverse country. We have First Nations and Inuit, two official languages, a multiethnic population, and very different regional cultures. The culture of Cape Breton is very different from that of the Eastern Townships in Quebec, or that of southern Alberta, or Nunavut.
All these regional cultures are intrinsically Canadian. They developed in Canada. They don’t exist anywhere else in the world. They deserve to be nurtured and to survive.
My problem with Trudeau’s slogan, and with the policies that go with it, is not that I am against diversity. It’s the belief that more and more diversity is always better. And that there is no limit to it.
As I wrote in one of my tweets, if anything and everything is Canadian, does being Canadian mean something? Shouldn’t we emphasize our cultural traditions? What we have built and have in common? What makes us different from other cultures and societies?
In the past, immigrants who came here gradually integrated into our society. They kept some aspects of the culture of their country of origin, of course. And that influenced and changed our society. They became Canadian, but with a distinct flavour.
This is a type of multiculturalism that enriches our society. And it is perfectly fine.
But that is very different than coming here to recreate the society and culture you left behind.
Living permanently in an enclave apart from the larger Canadian society.
And moreover, being officially encouraged by the government to continue to do so rather than to integrate into Canadian society and adopt Canadian culture and values.
A nation must be based on a sense of belonging, of participating in a common national project, sharing the same values, being different from the rest of the world.
It’s only when these sentiments are widely shared that we can develop the trust and common understanding necessary for our institutions to function.
Our country was almost torn apart because of the misunderstandings between Francophone Quebecers and the rest of Canada.
Many First Nations members feel alienated from Canadian society.
So why would we want to emphasize cultural, religious and ethnic differences, which have been one of the main causes of conflict throughout human history? This is insane.
We can already see the consequences in the way ethnic politics has become the norm among the other parties. They don’t talk to Canadians. They address themselves to ethnic voting blocs. To Ukrainian Canadians, Italian Canadians, Chinese Canadians, Muslim Canadians, Sikh Canadians.
Trudeau does it, Scheer does it, Singh does it.
Even our foreign policy now depends on appealing to these ethnic political clienteles, instead of being based on the interests of Canada as a whole.
If we continue on the present course, all these little tribes will have less and less in common, apart from their dependence on government in Ottawa.
Multiculturalism and balkanization
Some people have accused me of abandoning my free-market ideas because I talk about these issues. But this is totally misguided.
Mass immigration, open borders, unvetted immigration, extreme multiculturalism: all of this has nothing to do with freedom.
On the contrary, it’s a very dangerous type of social engineering. It amounts to large-scale government intervention in society and culture.
It will bring increasing cultural balkanisation, distrust, social conflict, and potentially violence, as we are seeing in other countries where division has reached a critical level.
In his 1991 book on multiculturalism, the late advisor to John F. Kennedy, Arthur Schlesinger, warned that “countries break up when they fail to give ethnically diverse peoples compelling reasons to see themselves as part of the same nation.”
Three years later, Canadian author Neil Bissoondath published Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada. That’s a very good title!
Bissoondath wrote that encouraging ethnic differences leads immigrants to adopt a psychology of separation from the mainstream culture. And he blamed multiculturalism for creating enclaves that isolate ethnic groups, at the expense of the unity and cohesion of our society.
Let me cite one more scholar. In his current research, Canadian political scientist Eric Kaufmann shows that lower immigration rates also help newcomers themselves. Because the lower rates bring greater integration, while also making the established population more welcoming.
In case there is a CBC journalist reporting this. Please note that these writers are not Far Right white supremacists. Just trying to help my good friends at CBC here!
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