A Very Canadian Story

When Harminder and Balwinder arrived in Canada, they wanted to hit the ground running. Harminder worked the night shift at the Christie Cookie factory and Balwinder built maple wood cabinets. By the time their two sons were born, they had saved enough of their modest wages to sponsor Harminder’s parents to join them. The proud grandparents took care of the kids while the new parents worked the long hours required to open their own cabinet-making business. Within a few years, they were gainfully employing dozens of Canadians.

I tell my family’s story not because it is unique, but precisely because it isn’t. The success stories of immigrants are like exits on the TransCanadian Highway; they criss-cross the country, and there are too many to count.

Today, as a Canadian Sikh, I am a Member of Parliament and a Cabinet Minister. But I could not be any of those things without Canada’s open, welcoming immigration policy.

Our open society has attracted generations of innovators and entrepreneurs who have found in Canada a place to fulfill their potential.

Watching Maxime Bernier’s announcement in Mississauga last week, I found it truly mystifying that Conservatives continue to under appreciate, if not totally misrepresent, the role immigration plays in our economy and society, at a time when we need young talented people more than ever to address our labour shortages.

When my parents arrived in the 1970s, there were over 6 people working in Canada for every retiree. That number has now dropped to 4, and if current demographic trends continue, it’s bound to drop to just 2 by 2035. That would make it impossible to pay for the health, education, and social services that help make Canada the greatest place in the world to live.

Immigrants don’t take Canadian jobs; they overwhelmingly create jobs for Canadians. In fact, according to the OECD, Canada is the best country in the world at attracting entrepreneurs – in other words, job creators. As a result, immigrants are more likely to start their own businesses in Canada than those who are born here.

I am proud of our country’s values of openness, diversity and inclusion. I firmly believe it is Canada’s responsibility to promote these qualities around the world. But these values also make good economic sense. Indeed, our diversity gives Canadians a competitive edge in a global economy that depends on people’s ability to navigate through different cultures and languages.

As other parts of the world turn inward, Canada remains open to people from all backgrounds – refugees from war-torn countries or highly skilled professionals in high growth industries.

Take Tareq Hadad, a Syrian refugee who came to Canada in 2016 and settled in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He opened up Peace by Chocolate which became a global success. He’s now hiring 50 refugees to complement his local workforce. This is one man, one entrepreneur, giving back to a country that has given him so much.

While Conservatives like Maxime Bernier and Andrew Scheer would seek to close our borders, Canadians know we all benefit from the talent and hard work of newcomers who contribute by creating jobs, opportunity, and prosperity that pays for the services we all cherish and rely on, especially our retirees. We are a stronger country as a result.

Less than a year before Maxime Bernier pledged to erect a proverbial wall at our borders, he was barely defeated by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer for the helm of the Party. Rewind a few more years, and the same Maxime Bernier was representing Canada on the world stage as Stephen Harper’s Foreign Affairs Minister.

Canadians rejected the politics of fear and division in 2015 when Maxime Bernier and Andrew Scheer were campaigning alongside Stephen Harper and Doug Ford, and I’m confident we will again in October.

What’s at stake is our ability to build an economy that works for everyone – one very Canadian story at a time.