[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Fair point. Although it should be noted that we don't really have underlying centuries-old ethnic feuds that are being kept in check by some strongman dictator like some Soviet-bloc country circa 1962. I mean, there are petty gripes and what not, but it's not like if the RCMP suddenly left Manitoba that the Africans and the Cree would suddenly be at each other's throats.

As to someone's point regarding birthright citizenship, I wonder if the interim response might take the form of more stringent residency requirements to access certain benefits of the welfare state? Or perhaps more stringent means testing? To some extent this sort of thing already exists... the most obvious example being the residency requirement for medicare, which keeps a lot of snowbirds in Canada for (depending on the province) roughly half the year. I don't know what kind of means tests exist now for provincial welfare programs, but the mythical housewife earning $12,000 a year but living in a $4,000,000 Vancouver home might need to jump through a few more hoops to claim BC social assistance - assuming that there is a problem with establishing eligibility in the first place, I suppose.

For quite some time now, the guiding principle in Canada for most of these issues has often been "maximum generosity and openness". Another example is the persistent talk in Ontario about letting non-citizen permanent residents vote in municipal elections.