{"id":47393,"date":"2019-03-18T03:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T07:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=47393"},"modified":"2019-03-17T11:21:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T15:21:41","slug":"reconciling-the-libertarian-and-anti-immigration-wings-of-maxime-berniers-ppc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2019\/03\/18\/reconciling-the-libertarian-and-anti-immigration-wings-of-maxime-berniers-ppc\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconciling the libertarian and anti-immigration wings of Maxime Bernier’s PPC"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Post Millennial<\/em>, Brad Betters<\/a> looks at how the PPC’s libertarian ideals co-exist with skepticism about current government immigration plans:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While there are many patterns of abuse in the mass media\u2019s everyday coverage of Maxime Bernier \u2014 i.e. the constant comparisons to Donald Trump, the failure to actually engage with his policies, quoting those who accuse him of \u201cpandering\u201d, while failing to quote his supporters (although there is the occasional exception) \u2014 one that jumps out is the routine questioning of his ideological bona fides<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Being ideologically inconsistent is a serious charge for many among Bernier\u2019s base. While not a concern for liberals and progressives (they just want power and results), it is for many conservatives, even if it means becoming \u201cbeautiful losers\u201d, as one US conservative commentator put it years back. <\/p>\n

Recently, the National Post<\/em>\u2019s John Ivison referred to Bernier\u2019s party, the People\u2019s Party of Canada (PPC), as being plagued by a \u201cfundamental contradiction\u201d in that it\u2019s \u201cled by a libertarian free-marketer and supported by anti-globalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although vague, Ivison is no doubt, at least in part, referring to the PPC\u2019s call to reduce immigration levels. His Post<\/em> colleague Stuart Thomson was more express, calling Bernier\u2019s immigration position \u201ca diversion from his ideological playbook\u201d \u2014 a criticism repeated by Global News\u2019 West Block host Mercedes Stephenson among others.<\/p>\n

In calling to reduce immigration, Bernier is being perfectly faithful to free-market thought. Importing workers from abroad, if high enough, can lead to supply shocks in the domestic labour market, weighing down and distorting wage rates in the process \u2014 indeed, economists are mystified why wages in Canada have flatlined despite years of growing GDP.<\/p>\n

For large employers, these expansions can lead to giant windfalls and a chance to avoid facing market discipline \u2014 i.e. by not innovating or offering the wages needed to draw in new workers. Markets which are expanded artificially are not \u201cfree\u201d, and profits pumped-up with the help of government we usually call \u2018subsidies\u2019: two things free-marketer libertarians revile.<\/p>\n

Equally reviled among libertarians is \u2018big government\u2019; something that goes hand in hand with mass immigration. Large populations with diverse languages, cultures, and religions serve as a perfect excuse for new government programs and bureaucratic meddling: from government-funded language instruction, translators, and signage, to more housing and educational and job-training initiatives for unprepared newcomers.<\/p>\n

Overlaying all this is the array of government watchdogs mandated to ensure immigrating visible minorities get the requisite (i.e. ever-increasing) amount of cultural sensitivity and achieve economic parity with old-stock Canadians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Post Millennial, Brad Betters looks at how the PPC’s libertarian ideals co-exist with skepticism about current government immigration plans: While there are many patterns of abuse in the mass media\u2019s everyday coverage of Maxime Bernier \u2014 i.e. the constant comparisons to Donald Trump, the failure to actually engage with his policies, quoting those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,10,53],"tags":[554,550,549,1269],"class_list":["post-47393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-liberty","category-politics","tag-immigration","tag-libertarianism","tag-maximebernier","tag-ppc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-ckp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47394,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47393\/revisions\/47394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}