With 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, he sees another opportunity for Manitoba. “I’m sure many of those people would make perfectly wonderful citizens of Canada,” he said. “I think we should go and get them.”
I bet those 11 million illegal immigrants are concentrated in larger cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Miami, and Phoenix. If I came to the US illegally, I wouldn't move to Montana or Wyoming...fewer job opportunities and harder to "blend in" with the locals. These are the same people who would prefer MTV in Canada - Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver, so I doubt they would go to Manitoba
The largest city in Montana has 90 thousand people, the largest in Wyoming has 60 thousand. Winnipeg has a population of 650,000 (actually a larger city than Miami). And the entire news article is about how Winnipeg is making itself attractive in competition with Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, by offering good jobs, good schools, and (I've lived there) a pretty cosmopolitan atmosphere. As an immigrant, it's not hard to blend in (as is the case in most large Canadian cities). Though that wouldn't actually be required, as the article was talking about offering legal immigration to those who are illegally in the US.
Winnipeg has a population of 650,000 (actually a larger city than Miami).
That's a little misleading...in the US, big cities are usually part of a much larger metropolitan area. Miami proper has a population of about 400,000, but the South Florida Metropolitan area has 5.5 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami). Expanding Winnipeg to the Winnipeg Capital region only increases the population to 735,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_Capital_Region).
With 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, he sees another opportunity for Manitoba. “I’m sure many of those people would make perfectly wonderful citizens of Canada,” he said. “I think we should go and get them.”