Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak | Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press
The Dalton McGuinty government, if re-elected, would provide a tax credit to businesses of up to $10,000 for hiring new immigrants to their first jobs. The program, which is expected to cost $12-million to implement, has the earmarks of an “affirmative action program” with all the emotional and political baggage that entails.
As might be expected, Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak was all over the ill-conceived election promise. As he put it on Tuesday at a campaign event:
“Basically Dalton McGuinty wants to pay companies $10,000 to hire foreign workers while we have half a million people in Ontario today who are looking for jobs.”
I agree almost entirely with Mr. Hudak. The whole idea that we give new residents priority over those who lived and worked in our province—some of whom are decades-long taxpayers—is distasteful, to put it mildly. And I believe most Ontarians will view this new election promise with suspicion and wonder why Dalton McGuinty believes they are less worthy, or needy, than newcomers.
Where I can’t agree with Tim Hudak is with his use of the term “foreign workers” in the above context. When my mother and I arrived in Canada those many decades ago as “landed immigrants,” did folks like Tim Hudak and his speechwriters/handlers consider my mom to be a foreign worker? She was a landed immigrant, i.e., a permanent resident and taxpayer, or a citizen in waiting, if you will. Good grief!
What can these people at PC Ontario headquarters be thinking? Perhaps they need Jason Kenney to sit them down and explain that there’s nothing foreign about being a new immigrant. The quarterback of the Grits fumbles right into their hands and they score, but in their own end zone.
© Russell G. Campbell, 2011.
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The views I express on this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of political parties, institutions or organizations with which I am associated.
Is that 10,000 per immigrant hired, or just 10,000 if you hire an immigrant/
ReplyDeleteYou think that's scoring in your own endzone? Really?
ReplyDeleteActually they don't seem to be thinking. Although it is not the same, Hudak's plan to reward employers who improve the language skills of new immigrants is just as ridiculous. Immigrants who want to improve their language skills will manage to do this on their own. This is another area the government should stay out of.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to take the comment made by Tim Hudak leader of the PC party the way he meant it when he referred to "foreign workers"
ReplyDeletedictionary
Foreign belonging to or coming from
another district, province etc.
fh
maryT,
ReplyDeleteI do not know if there's a maximum per employer.
Surecure,
ReplyDeleteDo you really mean to say it's just semantics to call a Canadian resident a foreigner? Wow
If you're not a Canadian citizen, and you are in Canada, you are a foreigner.
ReplyDeleteOpps, the following comment was deleted in error:
ReplyDeleteSurecure said …
God, I love semantics. Talk about the freakin' pinnacle of debate.
McGuinty uses the term immigrant. Hudak says foreign workers. Hudak is crucified.
If McGuinty said new Canadian and Hudak said immigrant, he still would have been crucified.
Therein lies the problem with word games: the fact that it's a game and not serious. Address the cosmetic side of a political debate and the seriousness gets pushed aside.
If you're rooting for Hudak, such perception games could suggest that you just scored in the wrong end zone yourself. You think?
Or we could just stick to the real issue of offering tax breaks that don't help to increase the number of people employed but rather just lets company cut their costs by picking one person over another simply because of their ethnicity.
September 8, 2011 6:48 PM
So, fh, by your reasoning, everyone in Canada who was not born here is a "foreigner?" Oh dear, I never thought of myself as a foreigner… who knew. Glad you're not our minister of immigration.
ReplyDeleteNeilD,
ReplyDeleteYour words: "If you're not a Canadian citizen, and you are in Canada, you are a foreigner."
Is this your personal opinion or did you find it in a reputable source? I'd love to see what reputable source defines foreigner in that way.
when did the english word foreign become associated with something BAD
ReplyDeleteit is a word used to describe the difference between two equally qualified workers looking to be hired
one a new immigrant
the other an Ontario born worker
fh
As I said, fh, I'm glan you're not the minister of imigration.
ReplyDeleteRuss you seem really hung up on this. Give your head a shake and please dwell on the thrust of the issue. Hudak I think has it right on this issue. It would seem to be so as shown by the outrage by Ontarions and not just from the right.
ReplyDeletebverwey
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foreign
ReplyDeleteForeign:
adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or derived from another country or nation; not native: foreign cars.
2. of or pertaining to contact or dealings with other countries; connected with foreign affairs.
3. external to one's own country or nation: a foreign country.
4. carried on abroad, or with other countries: foreign trade.
5. belonging to or coming from another district, province, etc.
This whole debate is a red herring.
ReplyDeleteA) Dalton would never implement this program.
B)The whole purpose of this "promise"is to get the PC's to come off message about Daltons atrocious record on the economy.
Unfortunately it seems to be working.