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Yet a further consideration that proponents of tripling the population have overlooked is that the environmental impact of such a large movement of people from mainly developing countries to Canada will be significant, both within our borders and globally, since their ecological footprint will be several times larger than it was in the countries they came from.

In sum, those who advocate a large-scale increase in immigration — or for that matter any increase — do so in the interests of those who benefit from an expanding economy that does not improve the lives of most Canadians and, indeed, causes increasing loss of quality of life for those who live in large cities. In addition, the gains for those who benefit in economic terms are more than offset by what is extracted from taxpayers.

As for the Liberal party, an overriding reason for raising intake would appear to be to expand its voter base. It is currently in the process of making acquisition of citizenship easier and faster, probably in the expectation that most newcomers will vote for their party — and the more quickly they can qualify to vote in federal elections, the better.

A major theme among those proposing such an increase is that Canada would have more clout on the world stage — to our benefit as well as that of other countries. Common to such proposals, however, is the failure to take account of the negative impacts such an increase will have on the current residents of Canada and their descendants.

Canadians are becoming well aware that major increases or even current levels of immigration are not in their interests, and attempts by McCallum to convince them otherwise will be a very hard sell.

Martin Collacott lives in Surrey. He is a former Canadian ambassador in Asia and the Middle East and has testified frequently on immigration policy before parliamentary committees.

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