Editor's Note: O Canada

Canada and the United States share a lot in common. The two countries share the world’s longest land border. Like the U.S., Canada stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific and on up northward to the Arctic Ocean. It is the second-largest country by total land area. And its residents currently enjoy the ninth highest per capita income on our planet.

Canada is often held up as a model society to the U.S. and the rest of the world. But as this issue of The Social Contract discloses, Canada is facing a host of problems associated with unrestrained immigration-fueled population growth that mirrors the situation in the U.S., Australia, and other countries.

Far from being an example that should be the standard by which other countries are judged, Canada, as detailed in this issue, is subject to a policy of mass immigration launched by its elites in the early 1990s. Among the consequences is the overexploitation of natural resources, raising important questions of sustainability. Political and corporate interests assert that Canada’s far north remains largely undeveloped, and so economic and population growth continues to be promoted. As the guest editors of this issue relate, “the big stick of political correctness” has bludgeoned many potential critics into silence when it comes to publicly making the connection between environmental problems and immigration-driven population growth.

As we were going to press, Canadian authorities had just arrested Raed Jaser, 35, and his suspected accomplice Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, for plotting a terrorist attack against a passenger train. Police confirmed that the men are not Canadian citizens, but had nonetheless been living in Canada for a “significant amount of time.” The Associated Press related that one of the suspects is Tunisian and the other is from the United Arab Emirates. They are believed to be confederates of al-Qaeda.

This special issue should serve to instruct readers in the U.S., across Canada, and in other countries where “growth mania” reigns supreme. As the Canadian editors note, “we share many of the same problems with the same underlying causes. But we won’t find solutions if we deny that there is a problem in the first place.”
The editors and publisher would like to recognize Madeline Weld, Tim Murray, David Schindler, and Stuart Hurlbert for their exceptional work in assembling this outstanding selection of articles on the looming problems of Canada’s population and environmental policies.