What about the people moving in from USA if the Reps win. Who is best suited for our diverse country. People we have to teach English/French to or the educated elitist that doesn't want to work. Jack Layton you sure got problems in the tough decisions.

I wonder what Dion has to say about this part of the article:

Canadian opposition leader Jack Layton

On second thought Dion and the Liberals haven't been acting like the opposition. Perhaps it's correct after all.

If you thought Bilingualism caused problems....try explaining official recognition of punjabi or any other language not engllish and french....one thing to provide services in that language, quite another to make it official.

Canada as a hotel and Jack Layton as the late night desk clerk.

He's got the 'stache for it...

Need any more proof Leftism is a mental disease?

Excuse me please to be asking you this, but what can you please explain is the matter with having Punjabi as official language, then you will get home from YVR so much faster without side trip to gay bar I not understand ferry terminal same way you do.

When did new start calling himself Peter O'Donnell?

I think there are some 600 languages in India. So they will all become official languages of Canada?

I love India and we should be doing more trade with it than China; they are part of teh Anglosphere after all.

What about the many more people who speak Mandarin as their first language?

I don't give a f**k what they speak in their homes, this is Canada and we speak English with a smattering of French in some areas. If we are to have a cohesive society we stick to the languages of the majority, case closed. If language is more important to newcomers than all the other benefits and better living conditions than some of the places immigrants come from, they should NOT come here.

It's the language of socialism Jack wants taught.

I was being facetious when I mentioned speaking Mandarin.

My point is that once this garbage starts it will not end until the card to hold a watch battery will be 100 square feet in size just to make sure everyone is covered.

Whenever the U.S. discusses making Spanish an official language, my recommendation is always to look at the mess to their north.

Jackoff is about to get something shoved up his punjabi pretty soon if he dont shut his pie hole!!

The notion that a host country should adapt to immigrants by modifying the host’s cultural norms, including language, is absurd. Anyone who has actually lived and worked in a foreign country and a distant culture understands that the primary onus to adapt is on the newcomers.

WTF?? Making Punjabi an official language? Oh Lord, what next.

Jack`s TOWER OF BABEL.

/head shake

Official language? This is so beyond the pale I cannot even comment beyond this.

Please oh please send this to Quebec.
Let's hope that Dion pulls off the official opposition.

Don’t give that much credibility to ‘THAINDIAN NEWS’, they just may have made it up.
None the less, if this is true, Layton is an original Canadian a$$hole. Never mind that the moron will never be even close to being a prime minister. That bottom feeder (apology to the bottom feeders, can’t find another category to put him in) can say just about anything he wants and more often than not he does. He will have not a snowballs chance in hell to do anything about it.
And you can put that under your sweater, Layton.

Punjabi language signs are already available in Ontario government offices in areas with significant punjabi populations.

I can understand putting these signs to help immigrants transition, but isn't the point-based system supposed to filter out non-english speakers?

India has 16 official languages, but that merely reflective of India's cultural and regional diversity.

Opening a visa office in Bombay is clever - the equivalent of opening a visa office in Shanghai or any other commercial center. The city attracts India's best and brightest - not a bad place to pick up immigrants. And its a very metropolitan city too.

That said, people in Mumbai is in Maharashtra state, not Punjab, with two whole states sitting in between. They don't speak Punjabi there.

Mini Marx is at it again. Give that little $hit an inch and he thinks he's a ruler!!!

And this is how the guy auditions for a serious role as official opposition?

Little India is in little Jack's corner.

What an opportunist that man is.

And his stupid wife, Olivia Chow--as dense as a board--who extolled the virtues of public transit and bicycles on a TV show the other night. Nothing against bicycles and public transit, but, there are Olivia and Jack, with no kids, pulling in, I guess, about $300 000 a year between them. Try extolling the virtues of the non car forms of transportation to time-starved parents of young children, and others who can't afford the luxury of living downtown, near to their jobs. Jack, Olivia, and their ilk are utter, elitist hypocrites.

Koqw Jtkw Layton Singh. Has a nice cadence to it.

Yeah, Jacko is all set for his crown and robes of state as head gobbler of a Turkey Ranch after Thanksgiving. Insufferable little man.

I promise a unicorn in every pot. And I promise to tax the hell out of all Canadians, and to distribute that money to all Canadians.

Oh, yes, and also, free tickets to the moon, redeemable until November 4 of this year.

Only if I'm elected PM, though, obviously. Let's be realistic here.

If the Punjabis want to live in a place where their language has official status....GO BACK TO THE PUNJAB!

Please.

Jack Gandu.

Peter O'Donnell at October 4, 2008 7:00 PM

Love it.

.

Like we don't have enough difficulties with two official languages. If people want to come to Canada they had better get used to the fact that Canada has two official languages English and French.

One more thing - this is the West - anyone who is not prepared to embrace our 2000 year old culture should find another place to park their rear end.

We have given away far to much of the store already.

.

2000 year old culture?

This is very bad math.

Democracy came from the Greeks.

The rule of Law came from the Romans. Capitol Hill in Washington DC is designed on Roman lines. And so on and so forth. Please do not revise history. The West did not start with Christianity. It started with the Roman Empire.

CJ:

Official language? This is so beyond the pale I cannot even comment beyond this.

I get completely what you say! Jack Layton should be in an institute for the mentally insane. Communists. Love yeah one day, the next the concentration camp, or gulag. More tribalization, means more friction.
Words cannot actually describe this imbecilic statement of giddiness, by this phony elitist neo-Marxist nobody.

You go Jack! Go after the Toronto ethnic vote. I couldn't be happier, but make sure you tell them you just want to be the prime minister, not the leader of the opposition. Apparently, that's the Liberal's job.

I hear, though, the Sri Lankans feel left out.

whatthe?:

Please do not revise history. The West did not start with Christianity. It started with the Roman Empire.

Well, whatthe?, depends on what you consider our culture, or more correctly, civilization. I am personally a fan of Toynbee's A Study of History, and referencing him, our civilization did start with Christianity (we are the Western Christendom Civilization). The "West" came from the Hellenistic Civilization (of which the Roman Empire was the Universal State), which was the daughter of the Mycenean, which was the child of the Minoan.

So, unless you too want to revise history, using your logic of going back to the Hellenistic Civilization, one should actually go all the way back to the Minoan. Well, and to the Babylonian, seeing as our whole concept/measurement of Time is from them, and then there is Hammurabi.

Just trying to say, don't chastise people for interpeting historical ages differently than you, as using your logic, it is easy to chastise you.

As for the topic at hand, German used to be the second spoken language in Alberta until this generation (and I am sure Ukrainian was possibly before German). Now it is Chinese (Stats haven't separarted out Mandarin, Cantonese, or others). So how many official languages do we have to have? Or is it based on race? As in Indians can get their languages made official, but Chinese or South Americans can't?

Personally, I think the poster who mentioned that the website may have made up the statement and Layton isn't saying he will make Punjab an official language is correct. Reading news items lately, there seems to be a militancy growing in the Indian community. I am referencing the media stories of special interests groups demanding the Canadian Anthem be sung partly in Punjabi, and the gross refutation of Harper's apology for the boat incident nearly a century ago.

I always thought that the "West" began with the Greco-Persian wars of the early 5th century BC. This was when the ethnic, geographic and ideological divisions in the ancient world became seemingly permanent: West vs. East, Greek vs. Persian, European vs. Asian, freedom vs. slavery. The Greek victories against the invading armies of Darius and Xerxes were the beginning of a distinctly Western civilization. Added to the legacy of classical Greece were the Roman inheritance, Christianity, the Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment. This is the 2500 year old heritage that our globalist elites are determined to destroy through mass Third World immigration.

Hey guys! lets not get off topic it is more fun to talk badly about Jackoff than history.

I think what Kate is it trying to say here is, " Vote for me, Jack Beanstock Layton, and if I become PM I will give you a pony and a sack of magic beans."

Jason Kenney met with the leaders of Chinese and Persian ethnic groups at our candidate's office today. Both groups complained about huge lines and chaos at visa offices in Hong Kong, Delhi, and Beijing. Kenney listened politely, pointed out that Canada had issued more visas to Chinese and Indian citizens last year than any Western country, including the US, and that the Tory government had reacted quickly when thousands of Indians complained that they were unfairly (and rudely) denied visas. The investigation traced the problem back to a single immigration officer who had recently been posted to Delhi, and whose pass rate was one-tenth that of other officers. When that person was replaced, the complaints dropped off immediately. Kenney was polite and respectful, but he was always firm. I was impressed.

However, when I buttonholed him briefly after the conference, I asked why the Tories didn't respond to the out-and-out lies and inconsistencies of the debates' "Gang of Four" in their ads. He replied that the party felt people didn't respond to statistical refutations. I'd like to test that. We've seen how one Quebecker's home-made video has reduced Tory support by about 6 points in Quebec. If there's anyone out there who knows how to construct video from debate clips, I'll provide the script and the facts. Let's see what the grass-roots can do!

Contact me at kevinbertschglf@yahoo.ca if you can help. Thanks.

Ln (e)

I have been chastised. Agreed. :D

Growing militancy in the Indian community? I disagree. Growing militancy in the Sikh community, perhaps, but they are hardly representative of the Indian, or even Punjabi community (seeing as there are Pakistani Muslim and Indian Hindu Punjabis too).

Thats what you get for terrible refugee policies. A large section of the Sikh lot came after their little secessionist stunt was put down in India (by a Sikh). Now they are being assertive here. Mulroney let them come in and set up their enclaves and, you know, plot terrorism (Air India). Now they are being assertive here. Time to set the ground rules?

Just gotta keep them nutty ones out. Canada allowed all of them in back in the 80s. Oh, and the Indian PM (a Sikh) issued a warning in March this year saying these groups are trying to stir up a mess in India again. He named Canada, the UK, and Germany. Something is definitely up.

"This is the 2500 year old heritage that our globalist elites are determined to destroy through mass Third World immigration."

Aww shucks. I wouldn't have paid much attention to this statement if you hadn't said third world. By doing that, you just made it colour based. I don't see it in the same terms of course - the richest man in the UK is a Hindu of Indian origin. Silicon Valley is what you would call a third-world haven.

Besides, even if you didn't have third-world immigration, whats to suggest that there wouldn't be a bunch of Basques making the same amount of noise. As I recall, it was the Ukrainians who pushed for Multiculturalism back in the 60s, when third-worlders in Canada were virtually non-existant.

Yes western tradition is being challenged. But only the archaic aspects- like your color based attitude. I don't htink most Canadians want to live in a puritanical or Victorian Canada. The times they are a-changing.

ot. i voted early on sat as we will be away during thanks giving. the place was full of liberal seniors. it took 30 minutes to get 20 voters through. one voting booth, one person handing out ballots, one person writing down your name and address so you can sign that you voted, one person crossing off your name on the voters list and one person available to change voter info on a form which had to be signed. you actually had to hand your id to the idiot and state your name and address before you could vote and that is with photo id. there were about 100 standing outside.

whatthe?,

The times they are a-changing indeed. In 1971 Canada was 97% white. By 2006 whites were down to 80% and falling fast. Why should whites give up their majority status in a country that their ancestors built up and fought for over four centuries? Are we not allowed to speak out against Jack Layton's dream of a Punjabi-Cantonese Canada of the future? What exactly was wrong with Canada up to the 1970s that needed to be remedied with massive and endless doses of Third World immigration? Are we even allowed to NOT celebrate diversity? Please explain why you want whites to become a minority in Canada.

Jacko was stumping in PEI and was telling us all how he and Olivia tandem biked around the Island from "kitchen table to kitchen table", that's his main buzz phrase. A sack of potatoes for him,and over the head wouldn't hurt.

In the news this am we have reports of vandalizing Liberal signs and property bearing them in Carolyn Bennett's Toronto riding of St.Pauls. Hmmmm,are things getting desperate or what? It certainly looks like they're looking for someone to blame for their problems. Conservatives never stoop to that level, nice try though.

you have to tread lightly on this issue,,or branded a bigot..an easy target..but one thing, most people must notice..of all our soldiers giving their life in afganistan....what....i think all but a couple..white, males..the bogeyman in every faucet of gov jobs, power, etc.

Only time not mentioned, is when they are dying.

If Jack could find a Taliban sleeper cell in Canada he would go hard at getting them recognition as a legitimate political party. What people like Layton want is for Canada to be completely transformed into a mosaic of the peoples of the earth - each with official language status. How much do you want to bet that this idiot is in favor of Shariah law for Muslims in Canada?

Jack Layton - dead from the neck up!

Jack what were you thinking? Our country is screwed up badly enough with the 2 official ones we have now! Adding Punjabi would intensify the issues. then pressure would come from the Cantonese and Mandarin groups. Then what?

My wife would like to have Ukranian as an official language as it is the dominent language in her home town - what do you say to that?

JP,

"In 1971 Canada was 97% white. By 2006 whites were down to 80% and falling fast."

Until 1962, Canada had the North American equivalent of what Australia proudly branded the White Australia Policy. Thats when the times, they started a-changing. National Origins became a big issue because of the general global concensus on the issue - Civil Rights movement in the US and all that. Race based policies were on the retreat globally, not just Canada. Canada changed its laws in the 1960s, the US did exactly the same around 1965, and Australia did it in late 1960s.

Why? Because by the 1960s Europe had stabilized and immigration from white countries had slowed dow. Immigration schemes are rarely altruistic. The rationale behind immigration in immigrant seeking countries is that immigrants contribute to economic growth, by increasing productivity AND consumption. Immigrants were needed - and Europeans had stopped coming.

Ironically enough, only one country bucked this trend - the UK, which instituted a new law in the late 1960s that denied even British passport holders entry into the UK, particularly from the newly-independent African countries.

"Why should whites give up their majority status in a country that their ancestors built up and fought for over four centuries?"

Without coloureds, there would be no whites - only Catholics and protestants, Englishmen and Irishmen etc etc. People of your ilk who like harking back to some glory days will always have some other group to complain about. These days its the colored - in another day and age it would have been those Irishmen. OR Scotsmen. Or Englishmen. Canada has an interesting history that way.

Read up about multiculturalism - it wasn't brought about to appease colored minorities - they were hardly present in Canada. Nope it was those 'white' Ukrainians and Jews.

"Are we not allowed to speak out against Jack Layton's dream of a Punjabi-Cantonese Canada of the future?"

Of course you are. But wihtout insinuating, as you do, that in order to be 'Canadian', one must come from a white country. That is what I took issue with.

"What exactly was wrong with Canada up to the 1970s that needed to be remedied with massive and endless doses of Third World immigration?"

The economy, actually. As mentioned above. Canada wasn't allowing immigrants in because they wanted to be nice to the overcrowded countries in the east. No country just allows immigrants- the rationale is economic growth. More productivity and more consumers.

No one in the world beleives Canada has an obligation to allow immigrants in.

"Are we even allowed to NOT celebrate diversity?"

You are entirely entitled to attack diversity. A hundred years ago you would be singing "The Maple Leaf Forever" and attacking the Irish. Now you attack the coloreds. Not racism per se, but there appears to be a need to scapegoat some 'other' groups for your own, umm, issues.

"Please explain why you want whites to become a minority in Canada."

I don't. That said, you can hardly blame the third-world for providing a steady supply of skilled immigrants when your white countries aren't. If Canada wants to stay white, it is entitled to. But Canada needs the people for economic reasons. They come here and buy houses and pay taxes and contribute to economic growth. Take them out of the equation and see how it affects the economy. And then write to your MP.

I won't suggest that you are a bigot, but I think your base assumptions are ill-informed.

Canada as a hotel and Jack Layton as the late night desk clerk.
Posted by: Stephen at October 4, 2008 6:49 PM

That's close. How about Jacko as Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers fame? Manuel would of course become Rapinder.

Hilarity ensues.

Syncro

whatthe?,

We're already breaking the rules by going off topic and getting into an extended debate, so I'm just going to say this and leave you with the last word, if you so choose.

Recent immigrants, mostly from the Third World, have much lower incomes and higher unemployment rates than the native born, even after decades in the country. This is unlike the historical experience when virtually all our immigration was from Europe and the United States. Check out Economic Impact of Immigration to Canada at Wikipedia for lots of links to statistical analyses. We would we better off economically, and I would argue socially and politically as well, if immigration was halted completely. And please don't tell me we need them because of a labour shortage--there is no such thing. A tight labour market drives up wages, benefiting employees at the expense of employers--not a bad trade-off in my opinion.

You claim that you don't want whites to become a minority in Canada. If true, then you must agree with me that non-white immigration to Canada must be either ended or reduced to a trickle. Otherwise whites will eventually become just another minority group here, it's a demographic certainty. And why would you insinuate that I'm a bigot when we both would like Canada to remain majority white?

While it's true that virtually all Western nations have opened their doors to mass Third World immigration since the 1960s, not all First World nations have done so. South Korea (99.9% Korean), Japan (98.5% Japanese) and Taiwan (95% Chinese) are determined to remain Korean, Japanese and Chinese far into the future. They have decided that social cohesion trumps the ethnic spoils system, unity trumps diversity, and automation trumps reliance on cheap labour. So now the two great competing social systems of the 21st century are becoming clear: the multiculturalism of the West versus the monoculturalism of the East. Right now the way the ethnic core of the West is being eroded, my money's on the East.

On the question of race, we need to be fully aware of the paradox that only one race may not "celebrate" its existence in the modern climate of thought, and most who read this will be of that race. To illustrate, I noted a comment on a documentary about the presidency discussing the last year of the West Wing TV series, that candidate Matt Santos was like Obama, men of a distinct racial minority who wanted to be known as the candidate for all people while at the same time they celebrated their race. I think that's a true assessment in both cases, the fictional and the not-quite-fictional.

Now, suppose that John McCain stood up and said that very same thing. The media would be all over him like Liberal youth on a Trudeau offspring.

So it is definitely a case where one race, the white European race, is being asked to shrink into a defensive posture while other races are encouraged to take "affirmative action." This presupposes either a continuing injustice to be overcome, or an inherent superiority of other races. I see evidence for neither although the attitude of superiority is growing.

Another example suffices to establish my point further. Let's say half a million Canadians of the 1971 vintage, so to speak, decided to emigrate en masse to China or India and all live in one or two urban areas, where we essentially lived in a Canadian cultural ghetto with English signs on our businesses, English-speaking elderly relatives who lived with us in our compounds, and hardly ever ventured off the property, and that somehow we managed to create a monopoly in certain areas of the economy like transport truck driving or taxi and limousine services. Now, what do you suppose would be the attitudes of the mainstream and the governments of these countries towards us?

We would be seen as imperialists and dispersed.

So I think we have already been very tolerant and almost fawning to our multicultural populations in Canada, the Liberals aggressively promoted their policies because they wanted to add safe Liberal ridings to their totals (which was one of their most successful projects) and either no thought was given to the consequences, or a cynical attitude was taken that problems would work themselves out down the road.

In some ways problems do work themselves out, but it was never a good idea to encourage large numbers of immigrants to come here without a stronger policy for learning to speak English and do business in English (or French as the case may be). It would be even more unwise to open up floodgates to millions more under similar terms and conditions. I don't think of this as racist, but rational ... smaller numbers of Asian immigrants, coming with the realization that they would need to have English language skills, would assimilate faster. When I say assimilate, I don't mean they should be indistinguishable. But there should be greater interaction between these communities and the larger "Canadian" society; otherwise, we risk creating a cluster of ethnic ghettoes with no social cohesion, and a large bloc of voters with no interest in the affairs of the larger community, their province or nation.

And yes, I live in greater Vancouver, so yes, I know whereof I speak. It is not the fault of the individuals who came, but the governments who enabled this bad policy and to some extent seek to maintain it to curry favour with potential voters.

I should add this concern -- the minute we start down the road to more official languages etc., we open up other doors like demands for additional religious holidays, Sharia law, various other dilutions of social cohesion, until this becomes some form of halfway house for the world, not a place to which anyone would feel much attachment. Wander around in some of these communities and see if you sense an attachment beyond the community itself.

JP,

A weak defence with plenty of flaws.

Your assertion that immigrants from Third World countries have much lower incomes is a bit odd, given that in neighboring US, Indians are the highest earning demographic. I expect they are doing pretty well in Canada too. Just as the Jamaicans are faring poorly.

Its not labour shortage - not once did I say labour shortage. However, the higher the population growth rate, the faster an economy grows. That is the rationale behind Australia, and Canada's immigraiton policies. Not altruism, nor a desire to turn Canada 'colored'.

When I say I want a white Canada, it doesnt mean purely in terms of skin color. I mean it in terms of traditions and laws - English as the main languuage and so forth. Otherwise, where would we fit in the 'darker' Italians et al. I don't use the term white as skin colour but as legal tradition etc.

The rest is factually incorrect. All western nations have not oepned their door to mass third world immigration. Germany is the most famous case, where being German is based on ethnicity, and not place of birth. Most western coutnries brought in temproary workers etc because, as the name suggests, they needed them to keep the economy going. UK is the most famous case where restrictions on immigration against non-whites were slapped on in the 1960s, to the point that even colored British citizens could not get into the country., The reason -they had enough people to keep the economy going.

Korea etc never did need people. They never had temporary worker programs. What next, are you going to blame colored folk for WWII, which resulted in the manpower shortages that forced these temporary worker policies?

Japan and Korea et al don't ven take in very high skilled labour because they have ample. The US and all do - the H-1B visa- the majority of which are allotted to Indian techies. The UK, and now Germany have implemented HIgh skill immigration programs similar to the US. Because they want the talent. They are not "nation-building" policies such as Canada's and Australia's

And pre-1960 Canada could have only white people because everyone else was barred. And even then, the Irishmen and the Englishmen were busy takng shots at each other. REmember Darcy McGee? I bet if you had been alive back then, you would have demanded only Catholic or Protestant immigration - as is perhaps expected from people who are blinded by prejudice.

A weak cop out on your part. And a weaker attempt to defend completely unsubstantiated statements by denying yourself the opportunity to defend, or substantiate them.

I recall seeing the picture of the fathers of Confederation: Sir John A MacDonald, D'arcy McGee, Sir Hectot-Louis Langevan, Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

Really Juck, you should brush up on what languasge the taliban are speaking now.

This was a misunderstanding on the part of the journalist. A confusion of the terms used in Canada vs India. Layton did not promise to recognize Punjabi as an official language. Other bloggingtories have corrected their posts. I hope you will too. Thnx

http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2008/10/english-french-and-punjabi/

Subject: from Gurmukh Singh, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), New Delhi

Clarification: Since the word ‘official’ in my report has caused confusion, let me explain it from our Indian perspective.

In India, an “official’” language does not become a “national” language. The acceptance of a language by the government makes it “official”, not a national language.

So Hindi and English are link languages (but never mentioned as national languages in the Indian Constitution), and 21 other languages are our official languages (but not national languages).

So my use of the word “official” might have been confused with the word “national” by some people. But that was not my intention.

All I wanted to know from Jack Layton was whether he will give some kind of recognition to the Punjabi language as it has been here for about a hundred years. Not the status of a national language.

Jack also didn’t promise anything except say that he will support any idea of such a recognition if his party is voted into power.

I see we have the usual token retard screaming racist again. I'd just like to make the observation that objecting to a proposal for making Punjabi an "official language" is not racist. The objection is to the idiot concept of an official language, not to the presence in this country of people whose first language is Punjabi.

That being said, on numbers alone Punjabi is getting to the point where it has almost as good a claim as French for "official Language" status. So does Cantonese, so does Farsi. These people all live within about 100 miles of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

I do not view this as a good thing, myself. The presence of that large a number of unassimilated immigrants in such small geographic areas cannot help but lead to uproar and unrest. Bear in mind the reason we even have two official languages in this country in the first place isn't because everything was going so great and wonderful we felt it would be fun to add French.

Who's zoomin who?

Indo-Canadians want official status for Punjabi

"Sadhu Binning, who is vice president of PLEA and teaches Punjabi at the University of British Columbia, said Punjabi has been used in Canada for 110 years but it was still not recognised as one of the Canadian languages.

It was high time it was given an official status like English and French, he said."

http://tinyurl.com/52qs2q