The Liberals have promised if re-elected to raise Canada's current rate of immigration from 250,000 a year to 300,000 or one per cent of the population. This would be the equivalent of the United States accepting 2.7 million legal immigrants a year, instead of 8-900,000. As in the United States, most immigrants come from outside Europe. Not one of the four, count'em four, opposition parties questions Canada's immigration policy. On the contrary, the Liberals' main opponent, the Canadian Alliance, bends over backwards to emphasize its full support for mass immigration.
Immigration is a positive source of economic growth, cultural diversity, and social renewal.
Some Alliance MPs would even outdo the Liberals. Although Chretien denied it, this was taken to be a reference to the Alliance. Whatever Chretien may have meant, there is no ambiguity in recent statements made by Liberal immigration minister Elinor Caplan to a largely Jewish audience in her Toronto riding. A little earlier, Eric Lowther, an Alliance MP, caused a stir when he suggested Canadians might want to have a referendum on immigration. It takes real work to suppress the immigration issue.