American Gladiators head across the border to work in the Canadian mining industry

Normally I do not watch TV; except for many movies on DVD.  But tonight I am somewhere in a tiny town off I5 in California and turned for entertainment to CNN and the Glenn Beck show.  I like him as he brings out the worst of my Libertarian instincts. 

Tonight he suggested a solution to the shortage of miners in Canada. 

He recommends that the United States send twelve million people across the unfenced northern border to enjoy free medical, free schools, and great jobs in Canada.  He calculates that will result in transmission of up to twenty five billion dollars a year back to the United States.

No problem getting into Canada—just claim to be a political refugee.  Afterall if you are illegal in the United States and flee fearing prosecution or eviction because of your illegal status, Canada will let you in.  That’s what the Canada Supreme Court says and so says Glenn Beck.  He may be right: I am told that they let in five refuges a day at the Vancouver airport, some 35,000 refuges from Florida this year across the Ontario border, and who know how many  across the First Nation to Native American Indian contiguous borders.  Plus there are all those folk who joined the American military, got their $10,000 sign-on bonus, and then saw the light and fled to Canada objecting to fighting and got welcomed with open arms as hero-protesters. 

In that only the mining industry in Canada is experiencing a shortage of workers, most of these refuges will be available to open new mines, particularly in Alberta.  Thus the United States gets more oil and more opportunities for its indigenous population.  Canada gets the folk it needs to be the pre-eminent mining country in North America.  And money flows to the recession-bound United States economy.  A true win-win situation. 

And if the refugees don’t like the cold of Alberta, why they can come to build houses for the rich and/or homeless in Vancouver.  Seems everyday I see a new highrise rising in amongst the street people of East Vancouver.  With no fall in the price of houses in Vancouver, seem to me there will continue to be a need for workers able to build highrises for those made rich in mining but wanting to live in a nice place.  And with no house building anymore in the US, they might as well come to YVR.

Actually to be fair to Glenn Beck he did not single out the mining industry.  He just mentioned Canada in general.  And then he passed on to the topic of pro basketball players taking steroids—another group of anti-heros.  But who cares, people love watching them on TV. 

Now I know why I avoid watching TV.  It really brings out the worst in me.  Maybe; Gladiators is now on, so I sign off to watch this truly informative program.