Uhm, no. In point of fact, most of those who came to Canada did not 'immigrate' they simply moved from one part of the empire to another. This was true for all the English speaking people, at any rate. They never lost their British citizenship and never gained any other kind until 1910, when the British citizenship act first declared there was such a creature. However, they were still British citizens until the 1947 citizenship act.
No, they don't. They still have to qualify as citizens, and even after they do, they're only citizens in name, not necessarily in spirit or culture or values.
Why should we take in all the world's poor and unwashed? How does this help us?
There was a time when our ancestors came here true, but they didn't get a welfare card or put up in a hotel or a house by the government when they arrived. They weren't given food or clothing nor health care. They came, they worked, or they died and went home. That is simply not the case today so there is no honest comparison to be made.
Yes but under our current communist ideology bringing in poor people is the right thing to do.
Everything is different from a different ideological perspective.