Sharan Kaur: Canada’s strength lies in diversity, not in closing doors

Judy Trinh looks at a new study that reveals that permanent residents coming into Canada with a master's degree or a PhD are leaving at higher rates.

Sharan Kaur served as the deputy chief of staff for former Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau and is currently a principal at Navigator.

J.D. Vance is wrong. Multiculturalism didn’t stall Canada; it built the very nation he now lectures us about.

There’s a new wave of politics sweeping across North America that is loud, resentful, and rooted in the idea that someone, somewhere, is taking something from you. The U.S. vice-president’s claim that Canada’s stagnant living standards are due to diversity-driven policy is just the latest example of this narrative. Canadians should recognize this pattern because we’re hearing similar rhetoric from our own politicians.

Pierre Poilievre and most of the CPC won’t directly say that immigrants are the problem. Instead, they prefer a softer approach, using coded language and subtle messaging to “take back” the country.

Some even go so far as to claim that immigrants and foreign workers are stealing jobs from Canadians. Not too long ago, MP Michelle Rempel jumped on the temporary foreign workers are stealing our jobs bandwagon, either intentionally or foolishly fuelling the “Canadian jobs for Canadians” rhetoric.

Are there issues with the TFW program? Absolutely. However, does fuelling anti-immigration and foreign worker sentiment contribute to constructive discourse? No. This rhetoric is often a dog whistle, designed to incite division rather than spark meaningful conversations about the complexities of our labour market.

Then there are roadshows like MP Jamil Jivani’s cross-Canada tour on “Liberal racism,” which argue that multiculturalism, “multigenderism,” and multilateralism somehow strip freedoms away. This is a dangerous performance masquerading as serious thought and intellect, trying to frame diversity itself as a threat.

The impact is clear. This rhetoric is fueling a new wave of racism across North America, often denied by many. It manifests as casual cruelty dressed up as commentary, where calling out racism is treated as an “excuse.”

The lived experiences of people who look like me and countless others are often reduced to mere political theatre, and any achievements by immigrants or their children are dismissed as products of “DEI” initiatives instead of hard work or merit. This represents a complete erosion of civil discourse that none of us expected to face in 2025.

As children of immigrants, we know how dangerous this shift is. Our parents didn’t come here to drain this country; they came to build it, brick by brick, shift after shift. They opened small businesses, staffed hospitals, drove trucks, worked in schools, cared for seniors, built transit lines, and launched tech companies long before anyone deemed the tech sector trendy. They made significant contributions long before anyone felt comfortable labeling Canada a multicultural success.

Canada didn’t stall because of people like them; it stalled because the systems around them failed to keep pace.

When we adopted multiculturalism in 1971, it was not merely a feel-good gesture, but a strategic decision aimed at building a competitive country. This choice allowed people to contribute without stripping away their identities, making us more stable, competitive, and attractive to global talent. It helped us avoid the divisions and unrest that others are now scrambling to resolve.

The numbers speak louder than any politician with a microphone. One in three small-business owners in Canada is an immigrant. More than half of all STEM graduate students are foreign-born. Our tech hubs depend on immigration, and our farms, care homes, construction sites, and hospitals would struggle to function without immigrant labour. Immigration hasn’t strained Canada’s economy; it has kept it thriving.

Our demographic reality isn’t subtle. By 2035, retirements will outnumber Canadian-born entrants nearly two to one. Without immigration, the labour force would already be shrinking, our tax base would collapse, and healthcare and pensions would buckle. The anti-immigrant narrative simply doesn’t hold up in a country with our demographics.

The game Poilievre’s caucus is playing

Yet instead of addressing the real issues — decades of underbuilding, outdated zoning, slow permitting processes, lack of transit, low productivity, and archaic credential recognition — some politicians look for scapegoats. Immigrants are easy targets. They can’t fight back at scale, lack lobbyists, and blaming them absolves politicians from explaining why the homes, infrastructure, and economy Canadians need haven’t been built.

That’s the game Poilievre’s caucus is increasingly playing, a slow drip of resentment politics masquerading as economic concern. They foster narratives that treat diversity as an experiment gone wrong, turning neighbours into suspects and newcomers into threats.

This toxic environment poisons discourse, fuels hate online, divides communities, and pushes Canada closer to the culture-war chaos that others are trying to escape.

If we want to address stagnation, the answer isn’t fewer immigrants or fewer cultures. The solution lies in acting like a country that plans for success rather than reacts out of fear. We must build more homes, approve projects faster, modernize credential recognition, boost productivity, and treat multiculturalism not just as a slogan but as a vital economic strategy.

Canada can choose between ambition and resentment. One fosters growth; the other stunts it.

Immigration didn’t stall Canada; it built the nation we’re fighting to protect. Diversity didn’t weaken us; it strengthened us. If we let cheap politics turn that strength into a liability, we risk losing the very essence that sets this country apart.

J.D. Vance and his Canadian imitators are mistaken. Closing doors is not a sign of strength. Planning for the people who walk through them is.

That is the true way to build a country, and it’s how Canada was built in the first place.

More from Sharan Kaur:

• Inside the Conservative Party’s culture of fear
• What Poilievre’s accusations against Trudeau, RCMP reveal about his leadership
• It’s time Canada valued expertise in politics over partisan point-scoring