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Canada doesn’t matter to the rest of the world - and it’s our own fault

And immigration probably won't help much either....

Rural Canada’s Population To Continue Decline Without Immigration Policy Shift​


Canada’s rural communities will continue to face a population decline unless various levels of government make policy changes to direct immigrants to settle in small towns, villages, and hamlets instead of major urban centres, said a researcher at Western University.

Rural Canada has been witnessing a declining population trend for more than 55 years now, at a slow but steady rate.

For example, in Ontario in 1966, 2.6 million people inhabited rural communities, making up 37 per cent of the province’s total 7 million people.

In 2021, the rural population remained at 2.5 million people, while the total provincial population increased to 14.2 million people.

The problem is how to direct immigrants to those small places and have them stay there. Rural tax/allowance incentive? Create more mid-sized cities away from the typical Canadian urban areas? Restrictions on moving (which would be a PR nightmare)?

By and large, people want to be where others of their same ethnicity are located. Trying to change that without huge government initiatives would be like pushing a rope.
 
I had a goofy idea when the Kurds and other Middle East groups were being prosecuted by ISIS and others. Offer a village in the middle east the opportunity to move lock stock and barrel to a village on the Prairies. There are numerous villages and hamlets that have a lot of empty homes but have current infrastructure and potential. Have the government purchase the town, and the 1280 acres (4 sections) of land surrounding the hamlet. Move the village there and they can start over, free from bombs, crazy religions, and terrorism.

I know there is a million things to make this idea unachievable but it does make for an interesting thought experiment.
 
Meanwhile, the forest industry is closing down.... and going to the US

Canfor to close sawmill, curtail pulp production citing B.C. policy changes​



Welcome to northern Ontario about 20+ years ago - the way of the world.
 
I had a goofy idea when the Kurds and other Middle East groups were being prosecuted by ISIS and others. Offer a village in the middle east the opportunity to move lock stock and barrel to a village on the Prairies. There are numerous villages and hamlets that have a lot of empty homes but have current infrastructure and potential. Have the government purchase the town, and the 1280 acres (4 sections) of land surrounding the hamlet. Move the village there and they can start over, free from bombs, crazy religions, and terrorism.

I know there is a million things to make this idea unachievable but it does make for an interesting thought experiment.
One of them being some folks opposing “foreigners” moving to Canada en masse and “bringing their issues here”. :rolleyes:
 
One of them being some folks opposing “foreigners” moving to Canada en masse and “bringing their issues here”. :rolleyes:
There is that, but a PR campaign of "Your ancestors came to Canada to get away from craziness of the old country, why would these folks be any different"

And I also find that the foreigners bringing "their issues" are well off ones who have the time and money to play diaspora politics. These folks would be too busy making a life to be bothered with the crap going on back in Northern Iraq.
 
No, apparently my ancestors came here to colonize, oppress and exploit on behalf of the crap holes they left.

I’m originally from Northern Ontario. There’s almost no comparison whatsoever between being a rural northerner and a rural southerner in Ontario. It’s as if the two are in completely different countries.

Now that I live in somewhat rural BC interior, it’s much different than the coast (I gather anecdotally). Certainly the hostility is mutual, and it does appear that that the provincial government of Vancouver/Victoria absolutely hates people in the interior. Again, it’s like two different countries especially with Kelowna being the summertime capital of Alberta.
 
There is that, but a PR campaign of "Your ancestors came to Canada to get away from craziness of the old country, why would these folks be any different"

And I also find that the foreigners bringing "their issues" are well off ones who have the time and money to play diaspora politics. These folks would be too busy making a life to be bothered with the crap going on back in Northern Iraq.

For your thought experiment, I'd consider where in Canada new citizens are needed. For example, Alberta already has the highest influx of people across the country. So the relocation of an entire village from XXX should go where those Canadians are leaving from. As Canadians move to Alberta, these 3rd world villages could be transplanted to the provinces losing people. This might help with the loss of population in those areas.
 
For your thought experiment, I'd consider where in Canada new citizens are needed. For example, Alberta already has the highest influx of people across the country. So the relocation of an entire village from XXX should go where those Canadians are leaving from. As Canadians move to Alberta, these 3rd world villages could be transplanted to the provinces losing people. This might help with the loss of population in those areas.
Oh great...now Newfoundland will have TWO groups of people that don't speak English!
 
And immigration probably won't help much either....

Rural Canada’s Population To Continue Decline Without Immigration Policy Shift​


Canada’s rural communities will continue to face a population decline unless various levels of government make policy changes to direct immigrants to settle in small towns, villages, and hamlets instead of major urban centres, said a researcher at Western University.

Rural Canada has been witnessing a declining population trend for more than 55 years now, at a slow but steady rate.

For example, in Ontario in 1966, 2.6 million people inhabited rural communities, making up 37 per cent of the province’s total 7 million people.

In 2021, the rural population remained at 2.5 million people, while the total provincial population increased to 14.2 million people.

Imagine if only we the ability to have workers work from home in well paying jobs that don’t necessarily need to be onsite…
 
There is that, but a PR campaign of "Your ancestors came to Canada to get away from craziness of the old country, why would these folks be any different"

And I also find that the foreigners bringing "their issues" are well off ones who have the time and money to play diaspora politics. These folks would be too busy making a life to be bothered with the crap going on back in Northern Iraq.
From my understanding Halifax deals with a large problem with certain refugees mainly living on government funding in such places as the PUBs. In Toronto the problems I have been made aware of have also been refugees and illegal immigrants that are mainly on government funding.
 
And immigration probably won't help much either....

Rural Canada’s Population To Continue Decline Without Immigration Policy Shift​


Canada’s rural communities will continue to face a population decline unless various levels of government make policy changes to direct immigrants to settle in small towns, villages, and hamlets instead of major urban centres, said a researcher at Western University.

Rural Canada has been witnessing a declining population trend for more than 55 years now, at a slow but steady rate.

For example, in Ontario in 1966, 2.6 million people inhabited rural communities, making up 37 per cent of the province’s total 7 million people.

In 2021, the rural population remained at 2.5 million people, while the total provincial population increased to 14.2 million people.

Today in
"Academics and bureaucrats situating the estimate to fit their hypotheses"


When enough people move to a rural area it becomes an Urban area, and those populations no longer count as those in a rural area.
But that's not a compelling narrative to advance a policy goal

For some actual insight into the rural situation (at least in Ontario)

Population dynamics​

The latest census shows more rural CSDs experienced positive population growth in the 5-years leading to 2021 than at any time since 1996, almost doubling the number of rural CSDs growing 10% or more (Table 1). The detailed CSD data provides evidence of a pandemic related shift in rural population growth.

Conditions in rural communities are reversing decades-long established trends, such as:

  • evidence of stronger population growth, labour markets, and housing markets
  • erosion of housing affordability in Toronto and a progressively larger number of baby boomers retiring starting the shift towards stronger population growth in rural CSDs between 2011 and 2016
  • the pandemic causing remote work to become a viable alternative to traditional work arrangements
  • Net out-migration from urban areas (notably the Toronto CMA) accounts for almost all of the population growth in rural Ontario. It started to accelerate in 2016 and recently hit a record high, supporting rural population growth. While net out-migration from the Toronto CMA may ease in the post pandemic period, its resilience since 2020 suggests rural communities may want to prepare for a sustained period of robust population growth to be prudent.
 
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The problem is how to direct immigrants to those small places and have them stay there. Rural tax/allowance incentive? Create more mid-sized cities away from the typical Canadian urban areas? Restrictions on moving (which would be a PR nightmare)?

By and large, people want to be where others of their same ethnicity are located. Trying to change that without huge government initiatives would be like pushing a rope.
Lmao.

The laughable, tiresome irony of those juxtaposed statements.
 
More people abandoning the more northern communities and moving to the large urban centres.

Don’t mention the 15-minute city war!
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Now that I live in somewhat rural BC interior, it’s much different than the coast (I gather anecdotally). Certainly the hostility is mutual, and it does appear that that the provincial government of Vancouver/Victoria absolutely hates people in the interior. Again, it’s like two different countries especially with Kelowna being the summertime capital of Alberta.
Crazy though CC that probably fits better in an ‘Electoral (or not) Reform’ thread…weight votes so that ridings are adjusted across the country based on population density, so that ridings are composed of greater population where the population density is higher (ie. larger, thus fewer ridings in metropolitan areas) let’s say 150,000 voters per riding, and a riding in a less dense population is comprised of fewer constituents…say 30,000 voters per rural riding. A ‘fairness density factor’ if you will. Not sure what the upper and lower riding composition numbers should be, but a reasonable inverse scaling to population density would serve to help moderate the ‘massive municipality hive mindedness factor’ to negatively disadvantage those Canadians in less populous regions.
 
Lmao.

The laughable, tiresome irony of those juxtaposed statements.
Am I wrong though? If someone was coming from an area where English or French isn’t the main language, is it crazy to think that they would want to be near folks that do speak the same languages, and to be near folks with ethnic similarities?

If for nothing else, getting foods and ingredients would be easier in a large city.
 
Am I wrong though? If someone was coming from an area where English or French isn’t the main language, is it crazy to think that they would want to be near folks that do speak the same languages, and to be near folks with ethnic similarities?

If for nothing else, getting foods and ingredients would be easier in a large city.
Of course not. So why then do all our institutions do their darndest their deny this to their French and English founding peoples?

Why must the solution be "force more migrants down the throats of the only communities that have maintained their identity so far"?

Why can't it be, I don't know, revert the unhinged globalization that has eviscerated our communities and obliterated our sense of national identity?
 
Of course not. So why then do all our institutions do their darndest their deny this to their French and English founding peoples?

Why must the solution be "force more migrants down the throats of the only communities that have maintained their identity so far"?

Why can't it be, I don't know, revert the unhinged globalization that has eviscerated our communities and obliterated our sense of national identity?
Our national identity has been a pretty big mix of things and hardly homogenous.
 
Of course not. So why then do all our institutions do their darndest their deny this to their French and English founding peoples?

Why must the solution be "force more migrants down the throats of the only communities that have maintained their identity so far"?

Why can't it be, I don't know, revert the unhinged globalization that has eviscerated our communities and obliterated our sense of national identity?
I’m sorry if I, a born/raised Canadian of Asian ethnicity, has been part of the “problem”.
 
I’m sorry if I, a born/raised Canadian of Asian ethnicity, has been part of the “problem”.
I'm sure dozens of people have told you this before, so I don't know why I bother to write it, but the problem is not the individual migrant, it's the number and the inability to properly assimilate them to the receiving society and its culture.
 
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