The story of a Santa Claus who did not own a watch

2003 will be historic if not significant in Canada because the Immigration Department will accept anywhere from 220,000 to 256,000 new immigrants. In comparison, the United States and Australia take only half as many per capita as Canada. Most of the immigrants will probably select Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto as their new homes. As the three provinces over-populate New Brunswick is actively pursuing new residents, business and entrepreneurs.

On the downside, majority of the immigrants in the past did not speak English or French which still puzzles me today. This remains to be a problem because there was added strains and problems in settlement services, health care, language courses, housing, pollution and the environment. And among recent arrivals, poverty levels are high. But on the upside, Statistics Canada revealed that immigrants who start their own business are better off financially than their counterparts who work for someone else.

A study found that longer established self-employed immigrants, those who came to Canada between 1976 and 1980, earned slightly more on average than Canadian born, self-employed workers – $23,845 compared to $23,000.

Self-employed workers account for nearly one-sixth of the immigrant workforce. The study also confirmed the fact that self-employed immigrants are more likely to work in consumer services than self-employed Canadian workers. And the number of self-employed immigrants in distributive services such as wholesaling is increasing.

In reality, according to Maclean’s, new immigrant workers are not doing so well. Immigrants who arrived after 1985 worked 14 fewer weeks and earned 30 percent less than Canadians. Could prejudice in the form of poor language skill be a factor? It is a fact that 90 percent of recent immigrants are visible minorities.

Here’s a heartwarming Christmas story, Canadian style.

Dave dons his Santa Claus uniform for a yearly gig at a popular Vancouver shopping mall. The 64-year-old man has been doing this every Christmas season for the past 15 years. Ten years ago, a young girl of six was concerned that Santa did not own a watch and she was afraid that he may not know when to leave the North Pole in time for Christmas. That was when Santa asked her mom for the time and said that he does not have a timepiece.

The single mom of the young girl was then out of a job and had only $30 in her pocket. But the daughter convinced her to buy Santa a $30 watch which she did to make her happy.

A Christmas friendship was formed and there was a yearly meeting at the mall for the next five years and then silence. It turned out that the young girl got very sickly and the mother struggled for better jobs. Year 2002 was better because the young girl recovered and is now 16 years old. Meanwhile, the mother got a good paying job. One evening, they were watching television and the newscast featured Santa looking for the young girl, wondering what happened to her.

A reunion was arranged and it made front page story. The story touched many hearts because it rekindled the spirit of giving and not receiving.

Isn’t that a lovely story? And now, back to business and Christmas shopping. It was predicted that Atlantic Canadians will be spending more. They are expected to spend almost $1,100 on average, well above the national average of $809. People of Quebec will continue to be the most frugal holiday shoppers for the fourth year in a row. Meanwhile, the residents of Alberta and British Columbia will probably shop 20 percent less this year. The most spirited province to date is Ontario at 62 percent and Atlantic Canada, at 59 percent. The Albertans rated only 47 percent on the subject of holiday spirit, the lowest level in the country. It has a younger population and will spend less on family members.

But Canada on a whole is a gift-happy country. Eighty-four percent of 1,500 adult Canadians surveyed believe that presenting loved ones with holiday gifts was important.

Despite the poor economy, Canadians spent more on eating out this year, with restaurants taking in $22 billion across Canada. Overall, spending by Canadians was up 3.4 percent in 2001. Taxes accounted for the biggest bulk of money paid out, something like 21 percent while 19 percent went into housing and 11 percent went to food.