scottd: You need to brush up on Econ101 theory. Except in situations of full employment, which have seldom existed in Canada in recent decades, adding labour supply suppresses wages. We've had some periods of localized full employment in recent decades, such as during the recent oil boom in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as some sectoral labour shortages, but otherwise general labour surpluses have existed in the Canadian economy since the 1970s. Tellingly, Mulroney initiated the current mass immigration scheme during the free trade recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s, thus exacerbating the unemployment rate. There's little doubt this was tied to his trade and globalization scheme. Previous periods of mass immigration, such as that at the beginning of the 20th century, which was intended to to populate the prairies, and during the post-WW2 period when the government pursued a deliberate strategy of full employment, differ significantly from the recent experience.