Tom Mulcair served as leader of the federal New Democratic Party from 2012 to 2017. He is a political commentator for CTV News and a columnist for CTVNews.ca. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is like the arsonist who tries to play the hero because they helped put out the flames of a fire that they started. Don’t be fooled, she’s anything but a hero. She set things in motion towards the potential breakup of Canada, then fought against her own referendum question. She doesn’t deserve any credit. That goes to the good people of Alberta, who expressed their strong attachment to Canada in the clearest possible terms. Anti-immigrant politics Now, Smith has the temerity to claim she has a clear mandate on a series of other referendum questions that provoke and rely on anti-immigration sentiments. That’s not a wise move either, but in the political mind of Danielle Smith, anything that keeps her in office is a great idea, no matter how harmful or divisive. Canadians, including the vast majority of Albertans, want nothing to do with the breakup of this extraordinary country we call home. And, unless you’re First Nations, Inuit or Métis, your family immigrated here at some point in its history, sometimes under the most difficult of conditions. Taking intolerant political cheap shots at immigrants isn’t a winning formula. Remember her alarming remarks earlier this year in which she blamed immigrants for having “flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems, ”thanks to “out-of-control” immigration. This week, by the slimmest of margins, some of Smith’s shamelessly anti-immigrant proposals passed. But all that gives her is a mandate to slink back into her office. It gives her no right to continue to use immigrants and refugees as scapegoats to be targeted. Prime Minister Mark Carney, like the vast majority of Canadians, appeared very relieved at the result. He was able to speak from firsthand experience as someone who grew up in Alberta. All of his actions on that front have been positive and well-regarded and contributed powerfully to Monday’s unambiguous drubbing of Smith’s reckless adventure. He hasn’t just talked about allowing Alberta to develop its vast resources more easily, he’s building a new pipeline to the West Coast. A government priority Carney has signalled that he’s open to discussing greater autonomy for provinces in certain areas of immigration where their input can be crucial. That doesn’t mean dog whistle policies to deprive new arrivals of government services, as Smith’s questions suggest. But provinces do often have deep knowledge about the needs of their manufacturers and other employers for temporary foreign workers, for example. The federal government has been ham-fisted in its highly bureaucratic administration of the program. Employers have been driven mad by the ineptitude of the Ottawa pencil pushers. That’s easy to change. The recent election of the separatist Parti Quebecois was given a boost by the highly offensive anti-immigrant ploys of new Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (PSPP for short). He stood in front of a high school near Quebec City at the start of the campaign and gravely intoned that the overcrowding was the fault of immigrants. It worked. Quebec has preferential deal PSPP has made anti-immigrant policies one of the mainstays of his brand of nationalism. He’s made his own comments about schools “overflowing everywhere in Quebec” thanks to immigrants, as well as blaming them for the decline of the French language. The irony is that when Carney convenes a meeting of premiers to discuss immigration issues, the other provinces would love nothing more than to get the preferential deal that Quebec already has. My working hypothesis is that PSPP will refuse to take part because he doesn’t see himself as an equal to the other mere ‘provincial’ premiers; he heads up a nation, after all. There is one lesson here for Mr. Carney. Yes, the economy is our number 1 issue as we weather the repeated attacks from the twin New York blowhards, Trump and Lutnick. But that, too, will pass. What won’t go away is the fact that Canada is a complex place where regional disparities sometimes become reasons for regional discontent. And flexibility in administering highly complex programs, like immigration, is essential to building the country and its economy. A winning formula Mr. Carney has been masterful in running his government and the economy through unprecedented perils. He has had to overly rely on a small number of very capable, experienced ministers. He has also avoided cabinet shuffles for now, preferring to rely on his own skills to fill the gaps. In immigration, he needs more solid help. There is a wealth of new talent in his caucus. Some truly exceptional people who were passed over as Carney put his government together. He cannot do everything himself and it’s indeed up to him to replace underperformers with new talent from the vast pool at his disposal. He shouldn’t wait. Canada is the second largest country in the world by area, but we are way down the list in terms of population. Any effort to increase our population rapidly through immigration, as Trudeau imposed, will cause backlash that has to be anticipated, understood and answered. You can’t manage that from the PMO. If Carney doesn’t get a handle on the issue, demagogues like Smith and PSPP will continue to have a field day, warning about the dire dangers of those vibrant forces that built Canada. New arrivals, full of talent, energy and hope, are our future. They know that they are lucky to be able to participate in the incredible opportunities our fabulous country has to offer. They want nothing more than the chance to do so. Weak policies make it easy for weak politicians, like Smith and PSPP, to target immigrants. Instead, let’s make it easy for new Canadians to contribute and feel welcome by doing a better job of making their essential contribution understood and appreciated. We’ll all be winners with that formula.
