We Need To Remember We Are All Immigrants

Looking at the heartbreaking picture of a 3 year old boy face down, dead in the sand as he tried to reach Canada has given Canadians pause. Who are we as a nation?

Unless you are a member of the First Nations (1.2% of North America's population), no matter what Donald Trump (Great grand-dad immigrated from Germany) or others say, you are a descendant of an immigrant. It is what makes Canada and the United States great. 

My Dad came over on a boat in 1952 after World War II, landing in the Holland Landing. My mother's parents came from Holland a generation before. My wife's family tracks their history to land given to a great-great-great grandfather after the Napoleonic wars and to Italian immigrants who landed after the Great War.

These are the people that built Canada and the United States. They were DRIVEN to succeed, to lift themselves out of poverty and achieve greatness. They are the people who rose up to make our countries greater than the colonial powers that looked to own us. 

Embrace diversity, 98.8% of us are immigrants to this land. Remember and help those who want to reach our shores. Those immigrant will bring new ideas, new perspectives and their drive to succeed. They will help North America remain free and great because they are driven, and I will hire drive over experience every time.

Those people were our family. Remember the writings of Emma Lazarus, engraved on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door"

Throw open the door Canada.

Feel the same way? Share where your family came from in the comments.