EDITORIAL- Canada stripping down dancer visa program

In the United States, we have certain stereotypes about our friendly neighbors to the north… In the United States, we have certain stereotypes about our friendly neighbors to the north in Canada: They like beer, play curling — the most confusing Olympic sport this side of solo synchronized swimming — and are very, very nice.

Even after scouring our brains, there’s definitely one thing that won’t come to mind — strippers. Yet, the exotic dance industry in Canada is going through the kind of scandal, and garnering the kind of media attention, that we in the States would only devote to election fraud or one of the Olsen twins.

Canada, it seems, has been actively recruiting foreigners to fill its flagging industries, attracting foreign construction workers, nannies, university professors and, yes, exotic dancers.

There was even a special program for obtaining work permits, but that’s been terminated after the immigration minister granted preferential treatment for an exotic dancer who worked as a volunteer on the minister’s Parliament re-election campaign, according to The Washington Post.

Now the program will be done on a case-by-case basis, after employers prove that they couldn’t get Canadians to fill the positions.

Oh, Canada, how easy you are to chuckle at.

But it’s not that scandal that has the country in a tizzy. This minor incident has opened up the whole program to attack. Those who opposed the recruitment system are accusing the program of “pimping for Canada” — a phrase no one ever thought possible.

Naked dancing is a legal, heavily taxed industry in Canada, and the people immigrating to be strippers are filling roles that Canadians have turned away from. Unless opponents are willing to fund programs encouraging people to go into the exotic dance industry — a la science education in the United States during the ’60s Space Race — they’re going to be stuck with foreign dancers.

Other opponents have raised the issue that stripping is inherently degrading, and that the people coming to Canada shouldn’t have to participate in such an industry to get work.

During the program, the government had been actively recruiting dancers from Romania — a country with terrible healthcare, a poor education system and an abominable human-rights record. So let’s see, who’s exploited here: the people who can’t get sick, learn or get due process, or those who can do all of those things, and have a good-paying, legal job as well?

With an offer that attractive, it’s a wonder Americans aren’t heading north. With the current outsourcing craze, that’s just what we need — a brain- and, er, other parts-drain in the stripping industry.