The nation of Canada is the latest Western country to receive a rude shock; namely, that it doesn't have enough children. Reporter Norma Greenaway reported for the CanWest News Service in the National Post of August 9, a story headlined, "'Import' More Youngsters, Ottawa Urged: Immigrants, Refugees: Needed to Counter Declining Fertility Rate, Analyst Says." (1)
The analyst in question is Tom Kent, whom Greenaway labels "a one-time social policy guru for the Liberal party." Greenaway writes that "Kent was a senior policy advisor to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and was one of the chief architects of some 1960s social programs, among them medicare and the Canada-Quebec Pensions Plan."
Kent's essay appears in the August issue of Policy Options magazine, which explores social policy options for the 21st century and is published by Canada's Institute for Research and Public Policy.( 2)
According to Greenaway, Kent says, "In the early 20th century, the immigrants most needed were farmers. Later, they were skilled industrial workers. In this century, the need is different again. Youth is prime."
Greenaway cites Kent saying the federal government must shift to a youth-oriented immigration policy because the diminished fertility rate has produced a scarcity of children in Canada.
Canada's Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), in a press release also dated August 9, entitled "The Absurdity of Canada's Need for More Young Immigrants Points Out the Decimation of Our Population by The Aborting of Our Children." (3)
Jim Hughes, National President of CLC, said "We have been pointing out for years that the deliberate removal of two and one-half million children from Canada's population by abortion will have serious economic repercussions as well as moral ones. Our aging population will have no financial base to keep our economy healthy and growing. Mr. Kent and the policies of the Federal Liberal Party are in large part responsible for the current situation."
Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer of CLC, added, "It has been said that God always forgives, people sometimes, nature never. We have failed to recognize that our most precious Canadian resource is our own children."
Abortion is the primary culprit, but the West's obsession with contraception and the idea that children are something to be avoided, and only lauded as accessories to self-fulfillment, is also to blame.
For over a decade and a half PRI has been warning that, if Western nations continued in their irrational anti-natalist policies at home and abroad, depopulation would follow. Yet abroad Canada still promotes alarmist "family planning" measures in the developing world. Frequently at odds with the local culture and religion, these destroy the only means of social security known to poor peoples' children.
Now the same people who gave Canada legalized abortion at home and population control abroad are saying that we need the children we have been so cavalierly eliminating.
Are the population controllers going to come out and say they've been wrong? Don't bet on it. It would be fun to watch their contortions if the future of Canada and the West weren't at stake.
1. National Post, '"Import' more youngsters, Ottawa urged: Immigrants, refugees: Need to counter declining fertility rate, analyst says;" Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service, August 9, 2004. http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=589e2d96-3058-4eba-b572-ad538c327c51
2. 'In the National Interest': A Social Policy Agenda for A New Century Restore Cooperative Federalism, Modernize Medicare, put Children first;" Tom Kent; Policy Options magazine; August 2004; http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/aug04/kent.pdf
3. Canada's Campaign Life Coalition; press release, August 9, 2004: "The absurdity of Canada's need for more young immigrants points out the decimation of our population by the aborting of our children." http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/press/2004/040809theabsurdity.html