False claims only erode public trust

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/02/2020 (2268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A few days ago, the Manitoba government issued a news release in which it stated that the number of immigrant landings in Manitoba in 2019 reached 18,905, “the highest for any year in the province’s 150-year history.”

The announcement was made with a quote by Economic Development and Training Minister Ralph Eichler. And it was made, quite incorrectly.

While, to our minds, the fact that there are nearly 19,000 newcomers living in Manitoba over the last year is a fantastic number, it pales in comparison to immigration numbers from the early part of the last century. A story in the Winnipeg Free Press this week reported that, in actuality, the highest number of immigrants coming to Manitoba was recorded in the fiscal year 1912-13, and that in the first 13 years of the 20th Century, the annual average of migrants entering Manitoba was approximately 30,531 individuals.

Winnipeg immigration history export, Robert Vineberg, who is chairman of trustees of The Canadian Museum for Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, said records from the annual Canada Year Book from Statistics Canada completely discount the province’s original claim.

He called the claim an “egregious mistake” and said it appeared “that the province’s database doesn’t go back far enough.”

The main reasons for the large number of immigrants before the Second World War years “were the attraction of free land, subsidized transportation from the U.K., and large numbers of immigrants coming from the European continent due to Clifford Sifton (who owned the Free Press) being minister of the interior from 1896 to 1905, and beginning the recruitment of immigrants from the continent,” Vineberg said.

My own grandparents were among those Mennonite refugees who settled into what is colloquially called southern Manitoba’s “Bible belt” during and shortly after the First World War. Thousands of people fled Europe during this time to find safety and new lives in Canada and the United States. And as Vineberg noted, much of that immigration then ended with the Great Depression. In fact, we have never again seen the kind of immigration numbers they had in those early decades of the 20th Century since.

When asked by the Free Press to verify its claim, a government spokesman further muddied the messaging on Thursday stating that immigration in 2019 was the highest in the province’s “modern history,” offering no parameters for when our “historic” period ended and “modern” Manitoba began.

We certainly don’t begrudge the Pallister government for touting the fact that our immigration policies are working, and that more people are moving into the province to build new lives on the Prairies.

And Eichler’s original comments last Tuesday stating that immigration is “a significant driver of economic and population growth,” and is “shaping the future of this province,” are quite accurate, and fairly illustrate that the Tories are forward thinking.

But before any political hack attempts to claim that their government’s policies are driving “best ever growth” or “highest job increases” or “most immigrants,” better make sure your facts are straight before you write.

Governments will find themselves in danger of losing the public trust if they sustain too many of these highly public screw-ups.

» Matt Goerzen, editor