Can immigration save Quebec’s small towns?

In today’s Big Story podcast, as a riding, Beauce was represented until recently by Maxime Bernier, the leader of the most anti-immigrant party in the country. As a collection of towns desperately searching for workers to keep businesses open, however, it is actively recruiting immigrants with promises of jobs and housing.

You might imagine, given the way they’ve voted in the past, that this doesn’t sit well with the majority of residents in towns like Saint-Gédéon or Sainte-Clotilde, but the continued existence of these places may depend on their ability to welcome people who come from other countries, in search of the jobs and futures they’ve been told they can find here. If those prospective citizens don’t stick around, then neither will local businesses that are just holding on. And once they go, that’s it.

GUEST: Étienne Lajoie (You can read Étienne’s piece in The Walrus)

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