Vancouver Sun Dept: What are the grounds for such a charge? A careful read of his article suggests that it stems from two equally misguided sources. The first is Hume's own fuzzy positive feelings toward immigration from having been brought to Canada as an immigrant by his father. The second is another opinion piece from last week's Province newspaper by Robert Vineberg from the Canada West Foundation, according to Vancouver Sun. Hume based his attack on our findings on an column by Vineberg, whom he quotes as saying that "the average income of immigrants in Canada more than 15 years before the 2006 census was actually higher than for native-born Canadians" and that "on average, those immigrants paid more in taxes than they got in benefits." According to Vineberg, "This turns the Fraser Institute's analysis on its head and suggests that immigrants are net contributors to government revenues if their entire working life is considered." columnist Stephen Hume The big picture shows immigrants are a good bet, May 30 dismisses as "disingenuous" our study for the Fraser Institute that estimated that recent immigrants admitted between 1987 and 2004 cost Canadian taxpayers about $20 billion annually. After consulting the dictionary, we concluded that he is suggesting that we are not "sincere" and that we are "withholding or not taking account of known information." In less polite parlance, he is calling us "liars." Hume's positive feelings toward immigrants are based on his and his family's success as immigrants and journalists. He even brings into his narrative our own conditions as economically successful immigrants, accusing us of trying to "pull up the ladder" after we're in the lifeboat. He plays shamelessly on the populist slogan "Canada is a country of immigrants and therefore all immigration is good" that vote-seeking politicians and the chattering classes have been hammering into our collective brains for decades. As
reported in the news.
@t canada west foundation, stephen hume
6.6.11
