When I was out in Vancouver last week picking up my eldest daughter from university, the first thing that hit me was the spectacular scenery of mountains, ocean, and green everywhere. Then it was immigrants, and the price of gas.
People in easy-going Vancouver are under a lot of economic pressure these days. Even more than us in Toronto. Gas prices are nearly $1.60 a litre, while in Toronto, they are less than $1.40. Vancouverites also have the same crises in housing, health care and rising food prices.
When I looked around Vancouver, I saw the faces of immigrants. “Too many immigrants are making prices go up.” It’s an argument I’ve heard here in Toronto, by people with thick accents. But in Toronto, like in Vancouver, immigrants are the people in your neighbourhood. They’re the people that you meet each day. Like Mr. Rogers used to say.
In Richmond, our hotel was surrounded by plazas of restaurants with signs in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, I think. I saw two teenagers sitting in one of the many benches, and I could hear them speak their language and then English. They sounded like any other Canadian teenagers. Same angst.
I saw families with children, young people, grandparents, everyone seemed to be out and enjoying themselves. It was safe in the evening when I took my daughters for a walk along the water. Older people strolled the seaside trail even as it got dark.
On a trip to Kitsilano Beach Park, I saw Indian construction workers. I saw lawn signs with photos of Asian real estate agents in front of mansions. At the beach park, a city worker with a heavy accent said it was ok to sit near where he was landscaping. For lunch, I bought tacos served by Mexican staff, and hamburgers prepared by Asian cooks.
I’m pretty sure immigrants aren’t controlling the price of gasoline, mortgage rates, or food. That would be Chevron, CIBC and Loblaws. All of them owned by billionaires. But billionaires don’t walk among us. They’re not working construction. They’re not serving you burgers, and they’re not landscaping your park. But there’s no doubt, they are making our lives a lot harder.
Trump and Elon Musk aren’t the only billionaire troublemakers. Pointing fingers at immigrants is just what they do to avoid paying higher taxes. But they, unlike immigrants, don’t live our lives. They’re the ones making it harder to live in Canada.
They’re just not like us.
