The Great Migration Malaise: A Symphony of Sleepwalkers in the Northern Realm

In the frigid expanse of the northern dominion, where comfort-seekers huddle in their democratic warmth, a great drama unfolds - one that speaks volumes of the eternal dance between growth and stagnation, between the courage to advance and the cowardice to retreat.

Behold how they scurry like ants in their glass towers, these ministers and bureaucrats, measuring human worth in mere numbers! They who once proclaimed themselves champions of the great migration now retreat at the first whisper of discontent from their somnolent masses. Such is the way of those who lack the strength to bear the weight of their own convictions!

The tale that unfolds before us is one of metamorphosis, as the great Canadian experiment in human movement begins to show cracks in its foundation. The sleepers, those content masses who for decades nodded in drowsy approval at the steady stream of newcomers, have begun to stir from their slumber, their dreams disturbed by the specter of housing costs and governmental mismanagement.

Lo, how the numbers tell their tale! From the depths of the Environics Institute emerges a portrait of a people in flux - where once 69 percent welcomed the stranger, now 58 percent cry out against the tide. The sleepers speak of houses they cannot afford, of systems they cannot comprehend, all while failing to perceive that their own complacency, their own unwillingness to build and grow, lies at the root of their discontent.

See how they clutch at their comfortable beliefs, these last men of the north! They who once proudly proclaimed their openness now seek to draw their bridges high, all while maintaining the pretense of virtue. They speak of "economic benefits" while their hearts quiver with fear of change!

In this grand theater of policy and public opinion, we witness the dance of the careful ones, led by their Prime Minister Trudeau and his herald Miller. They speak of "listening to Canadians" - ah, what sweet poison these words contain! For what is this listening but a surrender to the comfortable mediocrity that plagues our age?

The image before us speaks volumes - a new citizen holds her child aloft during a ceremony of belonging, a tableau of hope amidst the gathering storm of doubt. Yet even this moment of triumph is shadowed by the greater drama unfolding around it.

What glory might have been achieved had they the courage to build rather than retreat! Instead, they choose the path of the last man - seeking safety in numbers, comfort in consensus, relief in restriction.

The business chambers and provincial ministers cry out against these new restrictions, their voices a chorus of practical concerns masking deeper truths. They speak of labor shortages and economic growth, yet fail to grasp that true growth - the growth of spirit and will - cannot be measured in mere numbers.

In the provinces by the sea, where the need for new blood runs deep, leaders like Stoodley and Holt raise their voices in protest. Yet even their resistance speaks more of dependency than strength, more of fear of emptiness than love of fullness.

How they cling to their mathematical formulas and their careful calculations! As if the great tides of human movement could be reduced to mere arithmetic! The true measure of a nation's strength lies not in its ability to count heads, but in its will to forge ahead despite all obstacles.

As this drama reaches its crescendo, we witness a nation caught between its aspirations and its fears, between the heights it might achieve and the depths it fears to plumb. The government's retreat from its lofty immigration targets speaks not just of policy change, but of a deeper malaise - the triumph of the comfortable over the courageous.

Yet perhaps in this very moment of retreat, in this acknowledgment of limits and constraints, lies the seed of something greater. For only when the sleepers finally awaken to the true nature of their condition - when they recognize that their comfort has become their prison - can the real work of transformation begin.

Let them reduce their numbers! Let them draw their lines in the sand! For in this very act of restriction, they may unknowingly create the pressure that will forge something stronger, something greater than their careful plans could ever envision.

And so the great northern nation stands at its crossroads, its people caught between the somnolent peace of the past and the uncertain glory of the future. The question that remains is not one of numbers or policies, but of will - the will to become more than what they are, to rise above the comfortable mediocrity that beckons so sweetly.

For in the end, it is not the tide of migration that will determine their fate, but their response to it - whether they choose to remain among the last men, content in their careful calculations, or dare to forge ahead into unknown territories of spirit and will.