It doesn’t make any sense.
There is a reason successful democracies tend to settle into a relative equilibrium in which power goes back and forth between a centre-left party and a centre-right party.
This makes room for policy changes and adjustments, without any kind of revolutionary extremism – which often descends into dysfunction, economic decline, and even violence which puts democracy itself at risk.
Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise of extremist sentiment on both the far-left and the far-right across the Western world.
Here in Canada, we are even seeing extremists be put into positions of power within the government, leading to – unsurprisingly – the implementation of extreme policies.
In fact, on two key issues – immigration & climate policy – the Liberals have moved in a direction that is out of step with most Canadians and out of step with common sense.
Immigration has surged to absurd heights, with Canada bringing in over 1 million people per year.
While the permanent resident intake has increased by roughly 40% compared to the Harper era, the biggest increase has been in non-permanent residents (international students/temporary foreign workers).
This has placed a significant strain on our social services, has contributed to making housing unaffordable for a huge portion of the Canadian population, and is destroying the once-robust pro-immigration consensus in this country.
To give you a sense of how extreme the Liberal policy on immigration has been, consider what the Liberals themselves were saying in 2013:
“Liberal Human Resources and Skills Development critic Rodger Cuzner made the following statement today on reports of foreign workers replacing Canadian workers:
“Under the Conservatives, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program has been consistently abused as a vehicle to replace Canadian workers with foreign workers.
We have seen this very recently with Canadian IT workers who were replaced with foreign technology service workers. This follows last year’s authorization by the Conservatives for a mining company in British Columbia to bring in temporary foreign workers, despite the sizeable availability of Canadian miners.
The Harper Conservatives are placing a higher priority on outsourcing Canadian jobs to foreign workers than on training our labour force to match unprecedented skills shortages across the country. On their watch, the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has ballooned by nearly 200,000 or 140% since 2005, growing to 338,189 workers in 2012. This has all occurred while many Canadians across the country are facing serious difficulty securing employment.”
Now, take a look at the numbers the Liberals were complaining about. They were upset that the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada went from around 140,000 people to around 340,000 over a period of 7 years.
Yet, under the Liberals, the number of non-permanent residents (which includes many temporary foreign workers), rose by 312,758 people in just the third quarter of 2023 alone as recorded by Statistics Canada:
“From July 1 to October 1, the country saw the number of non-permanent residents continue to increase; the total non-permanent resident population increased from 2,198,679 to 2,511,437. This represents a net increase of 312,758 non-permanent residents in the third quarter, which is the greatest quarterly increase going back to 1971 (when data on non-permanent residents became available). The gain in non-permanent residents was mostly due to an increase in the number of work and study permit holders and, to a lesser extent, an increase in the number of refugee claimants.”
Now, keep that in mind when you consider what Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is saying:
“Our government has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure. Of course we will continue to be there for cities, provinces and territories to maintain the existing network, but there will be no more envelopes from the federal government to enlarge the road network. The analysis we have done is that the network is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have. And thanks to a mix of investment in active and public transit, and in territorial planning and densification, we can very well achieve our goals of economic, social and human development without more enlargement of the road network.”
What a combination:
Massive population increases combined with no funding for new road construction.
What could possibly go wrong?
It is quite dangerous for the Canadian government to be simultaneously imposing extreme immigration policies and extreme anti-development climate policies.
We need a return to moderation and common-sense, and radicals like Steven Guilbeault should have no involvement in the governance of our nation.
Spencer Fernando
