The Canadian Immigration Question
In 2008, recognizing the problems with the existing system, the Harper government wrote a reform into the budget bill in an attempt to deal with upwards of 1 million immigration applications. In essence, the Conservatives wanted to implement a system that moved away from a first-come-first-serve basis to one that gives immigration approval in conjunction with labour market requirements…Critics of this reform complain that Canada is making a return to the pre-WWII era where policy-makers handpicked immigrants based on ethnic preferences. Liberal leader Stéphane Dion calls the reform “unprecedented, sweeping, discretionary power”. Far from unprecedented, however, the reform is a pragmatic reigning-in of control over a country’s population that has grown by 2.4 million in recent years, nearly a 13.5% increase, mostly due to immigration.
