Immigration
Well, since I’m not currently a municipal candidate, I guess writing about provincial and federal issues makes a bit more sense. I’ll start with the obvious caveat that this is an emotional, heavy, and multifaceted issue, and my thoughts here are by no means comprehensive. I also want to say up front that I’m disturbed by many of the Premier’s recent comments, and by the wording of several of her proposed referendum questions. There is a heavier than usual dose of opinion coming in the paragraphs that follow.
At my restaurant, we employ several people who are immigrants to Canada, some more recent than others. I should also note that I am a third-generation Canadian. Realistically, the majority of Canadians can’t go back much further than a handful of generations to find immigration in their bloodlines. Getting here earlier really doesn’t hold a lot of intrinsic value, despite some of the rhetoric of “original Canadians” or “original Albertans”. You mean settlers and colonialists if you think your family is “original” so stop being so fucking cute.
I have lots of Russian and German lineage - some Jewish - who largely arrived in the 1920’s-40’s. I’ve joked over time that there exist lots of “prairie Jews” in this part of the world who came from all over Eastern Europe and adopted Catholic and Christian customs to fit in. On my mom’s side, we have a Star of David on our family crest and my parents and grandparents used an awful lot of what I now know is Yiddish slang. But we were Catholics, just ask us!
Again, this preamble is just to illustrate that there is only one “original” Canadian, and it’s the folks who we banished to reserves and spent centuries violently oppressing and denigrating. Stop being so fucking cute.
Now let’s get to the point. It's safe to say I do not share the Premier's confidence in my fellow Albertans. The idea of 9 referendum questions makes me sick to my stomach. Cue up an absolute deluge of AI-generated separatist propaganda full of misinformation and conjecture. Coded racist dogwhistles, anti-immigration rhetoric, open xenophobia, protectionism, extreme individualism, and an outright (if misguided) rejection of federalism. Not overtly, of course - as her supporters will be quick to point out. But it's no accident that the rhetoric around "Alberta-approved", "giving Albertans first priority on employment", and proving citizenship on ID is all a pretty slippery start to what I'm sure will be a steep fall further right.
I’ve already seen a lot of troubling things in the comment wars. I really have a problem with phrases like "the people who have built this province" as if that wasn't just immigrants from another time. Those generations were literally handed a plot of land while Chinese immigrants built the railroad, rounded up the "savages" onto reservations, and let Christian missionaries overrun the entire country. Then Eastern European / Jewish refugees all followed. Over time it was more Germans, Brits, Irish, Italians, Aussies, French, Scandinavians, and I’m sure you’re seeing the pattern. It wasn't until the majority of those immigrants stopped being white that suddenly the "original people" had a problem. Look no further than Smith begging for Ukrainians while simultaneously complaining about "open borders". That's a dogwhistle for dark-skinned people every time. You can tell because literally no-one complained about “open borders” when Ukrainians came in droves both in 2014 and 2022, but very much did when it was Iranians in 2014 and Sudanese in 2023. Stop being so fucking cute.
The points Smith made about healthcare strain are real. It's strange that they didn't plan to fund that strain on the system appropriately. They wanted it, so they saw it coming. Turning out our pockets now is disingenuous at best. The "original people" haven't been able to get family doctors for decades, and the problems with class sizes and overcrowded ERs go back to the Klein days. We can blame Trudeau and Carney all we want, but it's only part of the issue. Why didn't Alberta make meaningful investments in the good oil times (of which there have been many going back to the late 70's) and build refineries or keep the Heritage Fund robust through those periods? Instead we got Ralph Bux.
Blaming all of our problems on immigration is a very deliberate tactic being used by the UCP by way of Take Back Alberta and a LOT of US far-right think-tank funding. Falling for that bullshit xenophobia is playing into their hands. It's the first of many steps in forming public opinion toward separation. Citizenship on IDs and denying care to people unless they meet a residency threshold are just more steps toward the same. Isolationism is going to bite us in the ass, and if it continues, we'll end up a "have not" province again. We'll be begging, but no one will take us seriously because we spent so much time crying wolf over equalization and the NEP and Ottawa. Stop. Being. So. Fucking. Cute.
I'm of the belief that individualism doesn't serve us well as a group. Preventing major issues, particularly in the social and health spheres, is really a cost savings down the line. Intervening in diseases, addictions, homelessness / major poverty, and preventing the social disorder that stems from them avoids massive health and legal costs down the road.
Incarceration is literally the most expensive form of social housing, and yet people seem to accept that cost. Admitting people into overcrowded ERs because they don't have access to routine treatment and checkups makes ERs worse for everyone who needs them. Social programs that teach kids skills and trades and prevents them from petty crimes, gang activity, etc. makes them into productive members of society and avoids expensive jail and prison. And the list goes on. I know, it's overly optimistic, Utopian, and socialist. But capitalism, the "war on drugs", and the US model of private health care leave the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder behind. I'm not okay with that.
I'm terrified by the idea of putting these decisions to referendums. Apathy and social media indoctrination are super high around here. A good chunk of people will do whatever Berta Proud Dad or Big Red tell them to. It'll be Brexit all over again. And we’re about to see some very targeted messaging about how bad immigrants are. It’ll use PR-sanitized niceties, but it will be coupled with Rebel News / Western Standard / Sun Media stories sensationalizing crimes committed by immigrants. Statistics will say otherwise, but facts won’t matter to the algorithm that we all scroll through.
I'd love to find solutions, but the ones being presented by the UCP are not good enough. What I mostly hear from Smith is blame - on Ottawa, on immigrants, on the Senate, on not being able to pick judges, and on "bureaucracy". That last one is especially puzzling because she wants to set up her own versions of all kinds of federal programs from the RCMP to CPP, all of which will require bureaucracy. She wants to double oil production, and if we have ways to get it to market and have people to buy it, that's wonderful. But I don't know that she's reading the room. Most of the rest of the world is slowly moving away from oil as fuel. Obviously plastics and polymers aren't going anywhere. I don't know a lot about how the refining and processing differs on those, but let's explore it. If she is serious about absolutely not leaving oil in the ground, fund research on how to use it differently.
One of my ONLY positive takeaways is that there isn’t a separation question listed in her list of 9….. Yet. I’m certain it’s coming just as soon as the APP, TBA, and the other seppies finish their petition.
I hope next week's budget actually has solutions instead of complaints,
- Adam
