Ontario Premier Bats For Unskilled Migrants

Ontario, Canada (AHN) - Amid talks of a pending immigration reform, unskilled would-be-migrants found a champion in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty who said on Wednesday Canada must not close its doors to foreign migrant workers lacking in skills.

McGuinty went back to his roots to defend his position. His family came from Ireland during the mid 1800s when a potato shortage hit Europe. "We had no skills, we couldn't speak English and we were dirt poor. But we were looking for opportunity and we brought with us a solid work ethic," the Toronto Star quoted the premier who was on a tour of a carpentry class.

He pointed out leaving Canada's door open to foreign workers is the only way to sustain the country's economic growth since Canadians are not inclined to have more children. "I want to make sure we continue to strike a balance in terms of having our doors open," McGuinty said.

Canada is one of the most welcoming countries to foreign migrant workers. Annually it grants permanent resident visas to over 200,000 immigrants, majority of whom are skilled ones. Due to the backlog of applications, the country's Immigration Ministry wants to speed up the process as well as allow more types of workers in an effort to battle a malady afflicting many western countries, the graying of its population amid very low natural birth rates.