1942 Liberals vs 2021 Liberals on race relations

In my research earlier this month into historical budgets, I was reading through 1942 Hansard where I found this gem (from March 9th 1942, exactly 79 years before my post about Budget Barbie):

In case you can't see the image, and so that this can be future-quoted, here's what it says:

I find this legislation scandalous. It is time that we stopped making Canada nothing more than a dumping ground for all the nations of the world.

Mr. MITCHELL: In reply to my hon. friend the member for Témiscouata (Mr. Pouliot), who has talked about Canada being a dumping ground, let me say that the Minister of Labour is one of those who were dumped, and I am proud of it.

Mr. MacNICOL: The minister is a credit to Canada, too. 

Mr. MITCHELL: I might add that I have recently been through a by-election in Welland, and in speaking to the good people of that constituency I dwelt on the difficulty of governing a nation made up of all of the finest blood streams of Europe, including my own and my hon. friend's blood streams. My grandfather was a Frenchman and I am proud of it. At this very difficult time through which we are passing, when the very life of our institutions which it has taken centuries to build up is at stake. I do not think it is well that utterances should go forth from this House of Commons which would have for their purpose the splitting of this nation, not into two racial groups only, but into dozens of racial groups. 

For your context, Monsigneur Pouliot is one ean-François Pouliot of the Liberal Party of Canada, objecting to a bill which would provide government benefits to soldiers on the grounds that any old soldier who signed up for the British Empire would be compensated. His "dumping ground for the world" of course was in reference to British citizens holding Canadian high office, though he tied that into the Brits enlisting tribal Africans as well (I've posted his full address below). That same Pouliot later split from the government over conscription, since fighting to save France in the Canadian national interest apparently didn't interest the cowards in Queerbec. He's against Canadian soliders, he's against foreign soldiers. No wonder General Wolfe whipped them on the plains of Abraham. Mitchell is Humphrey Mitchell, also of the Liberal Party of Canada (Welland Ontario, just outside of Niagara Falls), while John Ritchie MacNicol was the National Government^† candidate for Davenport (part of Toronto).

^† In the 1940 election the four main parties were the Liberal Party (who won the election and formed the national government), the National Government (who lost the election and did not become the national government), along with the New Democracy Party (who were offshoots from the Conservative Party who later formed Social Credit, diametrically opposed to the NDP), and finally the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (who later became the NDP). And you thought the red/blue swap was confusing.

So what we had here was a Queerbec Liberal bemoaning immigration and wanting Canada to remain insular, with Ontario Liberals countering (with support from the Tories) that all the European races belonged to Canada and that balkanization into "dozens of racial groups" was a bad thing. Today, Welland is "Niagara-Centre" and it's Liberal MP says retarded garbage like this:

Our friends at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre are hosting Celebration of Nations from Sept 11-13 2020. This annual Indigenous arts gathering celebrates creativity, diversity and resilience. This year they’re going virtual with live streams, teachings, workshops + more. pic.twitter.com/lqsYUOCE5S

— Vance Badawey (@VBadawey) September 9, 2020

The "dozens of racial groups" thing was only a temporary concern for you guys, huh? It's a shame, because we've seen that Mitchell's concerns have come to pass. Speaking of Badawey, he got all pissy last year when a Conservative candidate make a gag about how Camel-a Harris is only halfblack, while  Leslyn Lewis is the full meal deal. But isn't that the ultimate end-point of the balkanized worldview that Mitchell opposed and Badawey endorsed? If "white privilege" was really a thing, wouldn't Harris at least have some of it which she needs to "acknowledge" and "make reparations for" while Lewis had none?

The alternative, of course, is the English Liberal/Conservative coalition of 1942's response. It's a shame the LPC doesn't believe in that stuff anymore. (Though it's worth a note that it's the same government who sided with the Pouliot wing of the party when it came to ships full of Jews.)

Below is the full Pouliot remarks:

Mr. POULIOT: I consider it a shame. Under  previous legislation it was required that a person should have resided in Canada for some time prior to the great war to enjoy a preference in appointment to the civil service, and under that legislation the civil service has been filled with people who were not born in this country and who are now occupying the finest positions in the Land. Canada has become the dumping ground for all the nations of the world. There is a distinction made in the legislation before us—and the minister was honest enough to admit it—between men and women. Men may come from all over the world to take advantage of this legislation and get something from this government, but for women service in his majesty's form shall include service in the Canadian Women's Army Corps or in the Canadian Women's Auxiliary Air Force. There is a distinction clearly made between men and women, and how the minister can bring legislation like that before this house and this committee I cannot understand. He is a new minister, and I was quite open-minded because he was my colleague in the house for a certain length of time, but I cannot conceive that his idea of Canadian citizenship is that this country shall become the dumping ground of all the nations of the world and that it is to he enough for a man to get into his majesty's fortes anywhere, in central Africa or anywhere else, to be entitled to the same privileges as a red-blooded Canadian who enlists in the Canadian army. This I cannot conceive to be right: and I do not know any Canadian citizen, born in Canada, who would pilot legislation like that through this house. I do not know any member who is not enough of a Canadian to protest strongly and bitterly against it until it is defeated in this committee and in this house. I have never before spoken like this, but it is time that we opened our eyes and stopped making fools of ourselves.