Despite Stephen Harper's best efforts...

...the Canadian economy has not collapsed...

The controversial stripper visa dates back to 1998 and allowed hundreds of foreign dancers into the country each year. There were 660 dancers admitted in its heyday in 2001. Most were from Eastern Europe. All they had to do was provide a Canadian job offer from a strip club and prove they were qualified to dance.

They had to prove they were strippers? No wonder the "natural ruling party" was on board here... they do so love a party.

Of course, along comes killjoy Stephen Harper and the tap slows to a dribble...

Only about 100 of these visas have been renewed each year since 2006.

Yup... you sure can tell a Conservative from a Liberal...

Support for the program plummeted ever since former Liberal immigration minister Judy Sgro resigned in 2000 after facing accusations that she fast-tracked a stripper who worked on her election campaign. It turned out the dancer was issued a special residency permit in a scandal called “Strippergate.”

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UPDATE: Take heart, Liberal Party of Canada

The Titty-Bar Empire Strikes Back...

Recruiters of teenage strippers may soon be scouring Toronto high schools in search of female students who can be groomed into disrobing part-time as exotic dancers to earn college tuition.

Adult Entertainment Association of Canada director Tim Lambrinos says overcrowded Toronto high schools can become a prime recruiting ground for potential dancers.

“We are already doing some outreach work in some areas,” Lambrinos said. “We will be taking a strippers’ dance pole with us to the schools.”

In what is obviously a well-planned and organised campaign... the association already has a Plan B...

There are up to 800 foreign strippers in Canada and most vow to go underground and work in the sex trade if they can’t dance legally.

High school strippers cum hookers? Is that what Toronto has come to?

I dunno... in the decade since I left sophisticated, metrosexual Toronto and put down roots out here in the sticks, I've yet to come across a single Dad bragging about "my daughter the stripper."

I guess we're just a bunch of hicks.