Occasionally, I criticize the subsidies for farmers and I am not backing away from that position. However, you know what I like about farmers? You can’t fake farming. Crops either grow or they don’t. That’s refreshing.
Unfortunately, in the realm of politics, you can fake just about everything. Take immigration for example. I have been reading recently about all the great immigration activity in New Brunswick. Fredericton has a strategy. Saint John has a strategy. Immigrants are moving to the upper Saint John River Valley. Mesheau says our immigration plan is working.
So, I checked (as usual).
And, as usual, trickery, spin and snake oil abounds.
New Brunswick had the lowest level of immigrants of any province from June 2003 – June 2004. Only 0.3% of the country’s immigrants came to New Brunswick.
Someday, somebody is going to wake up and realize that strategies, press releases, speeches, editorials, reports, brochures, websites, round tables, square tables, forums, think tanks, symposia, conferences and Prosperity Plans – do not bring in one immigrant. They do nothing, in and of themselves, to address our population decline.
Crops either grow or they don’t.
Ebb and flow. Ebb and flow.