A Liberal Exodus to Canada? Don't Count on It, Says Activist
by Chad Groening
November 10, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Canadian pro-family activist doesn't believe too many disgruntled American liberals will immigrate to his country, despite the increase of hits on the government's immigration website.In the days following President Bush's re-election, Canadian authorities noticed that the number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration website had shot up six-fold. That sparked speculation that many disconsolate John Kerry supporters might want to start a new life in more liberal Canada. Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of the Canada Family Action Coalition, says while he understands such thought, he does not think much will come it.
"[American liberals] would feel very at home with the socialist, liberal policies that we have here, which obviously is something that they wanted to see happen in the U.S." he says. "[But] I think it is just a bitter outcry because they're upset with the results."
According to Rushfeldt, his country could use the influx, regardless of people's political persuasion. The family advocate admits Canada desperately needs immigrants because of a declining population. "We're aborting so many babies [in Canada] that our population is on the decline," he says, "and so just to maintain the current population we do need to bring people in from someplace." He thinks that is the rationale between Ottowa's push to attract between 220,000 and 240,000 new permanent residents next year.
If Rushfeldt had his way, the majority of any immigrants to Canada would have a conservative bent. "We would like to have a lot of conservatives up here [to] help change our country," he says, "but I think it's certainly going to be the liberal-minded people who would consider coming in."
Rushfeldt says his nation's immigration department has indicated no priority would be given to those who might want to move from the United States. "[They] said that Americans will get in the same line as the rest of the world," he says. "But I honestly do not believe that we'll see very many of the people from the U.S. come up here."
The Coalition leader says it is unfortunate, but Canada does not have much to offer in the way of jobs, "even to the liberals."
