The details in the demography
Ezra Levant - April 9, 2007
It's hard to believe that when Saskatchewan and Alberta joined Confederation on the same day back in 1905, Saskatchewan was the bigger brother--richer, more populous, more optimistic. A generation later, both provinces were staggered by the Great Depression and desperately reached for utopian political solutions: the socialist CCF in Saskatchewan, and the mildly fascist Social Credit in Alberta. After the death of William Aberhart in 1943, Alberta's Socreds abandoned their centrally planned economy and heavy-handed approach to government. Saskatchewan's CCF didn't.
The rest is history. Today Alberta is Canada's economic leader, cresting three million souls, a magnet for every young Canadian seeking his fortune. Saskatchewan continues to export its young people, keeping that province below the million-person mark, about where it was back in 1931.
It shouldn't be that way; with more wheat, uranium and potash than any other province, a close second to Alberta in oil and gas (with undeveloped oilsands in its north, too) and with discoveries of diamonds, Saskatchewan should be booming. But as its entrepreneurial class continues to leave, the remaining voters are disproportionately wards of the nanny state--public sector workers, aboriginals dependent on government largesse, and retirees. Saskatchewan is demographically the oldest province in Canada. Paradoxically, the worse Saskatchewan's economic prospects get, the harder it is to dislodge its socialist government. Cyril Doll's story on page 30 about Brad Wall, the charismatic young leader of the Saskatchewan Party--the right-of-centre alternative to the ruling NDP--is a ray of hope for those remaining in Saskatchewan, and that province's enormous diaspora in Alberta and elsewhere. A Wall win could trigger a massive re-investment and reinvigoration of that province. Think of what Cuba could be like if it were ever to throw off the Castro regime and welcome its wealthy expatriates back from Miami.
While Saskatchewan's declining population looks bad compared to Alberta's, the whole of Canada is in bad demographic shape. As Mark Steyn (page 54) and Ted Byfield (page 14) write in their respective columns, Statistics Canada shows that as Canada's fertility rate continues at well below replacement levels, only massive immigration keeps our population from dwindling. This is not the first time Canada opened its gates to foreigners, especially those seeking economic opportunities. But this is the first time it has been done in the context of one-way multiculturalism--where Canadians, not the newcomers adapt to the other.
The epitome of a perfect immigrant will always be Irving Berlin. Born Israel Baline in Russia, he came to America at age five and quickly fell in love with the country. He joined the army in the First World War, and composed various patriotic songs, including "God Bless America." In the Second World War, too old to fight, he toured the world, entertaining the troops. He loved everything about America, celebrating it in hundreds of songs, including "White Christmas"--not bad for a Jewish kid.
Berlin came to America during a flood of immigration comparable to our own. But there was an expectation then--so obvious it didn't have to be said--that immigrants would join and love their new country, and adopt its liberal values if not all of its customs. Today that's not obvious at all, and it dare not be proposed by any serious politician, fearful of being labelled intolerant or racist. But it is precisely the values that Berlin wrote about in "God Bless America" (Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free/Let us all be grateful for a land so fair) and other songs.
Part of the answer must be to inculcate our newcomers with Berlin's instincts--gratitude for a country that took him in; an understanding of the importance of freedom; the meaning of citizenship and loyalty. That is unlikely to come from most of our self-appointed arbiters of national identity, who would posit government health care, anti-Americanism and environmentalism as Canada's essential values. The media would fail that task, as would most of our schools. Is there a chance that cultural confidence can come from the Conservative government, and its minister in charge of national identity, Jason Kenney? Watching the tenor of this summer's Canada Day celebrations, part of Kenney's portfolio, might give us a hint.