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November 19, 2024 - 2:30pm
Amid the last-ditch effort to reverse the wreckage of his government’s radical immigration policies, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing ahead with a series of restrictionist moves designed to signal to Canadian voters that he has heard their frustrations.
Trudeau released a social media video that seemed to acknowledge the gravity of the crisis he abetted, but only in a roundabout way. He quickly deflected all of the blame to certain “bad actors” in the private sector, in higher education, and in the scarcely regulated immigration consulting industry, where fraud is rife. Indeed, this volte-face comes after three years of prioritising the demands of these special interest groups over the welfare of the broader Canadian public. Near the end of his message, the Prime Minister admitted: “We could have acted quicker and turned off the taps”. That may well be the understatement of the century.
A housing crunch, rising competition for jobs, and growing unease over migrants’ ability to integrate have generated a rare Canadian popular backlash against immigration after years of a robust pro-immigration consensus. However, this welcoming attitude had always been based on prudent controls around maintaining the right economic balance — and it is this balance which his government fatally undermined when it opened the floodgates to cheap foreign workers in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic; this was done in response to the business sector’s persistent but dubious claims of an ongoing national “labour shortage”.
In reality, the tight labour market created the right conditions for rising wages and increased job security, something which the captains of Canadian industry could scarcely tolerate. These attitudes were embodied by the likes of former Trudeau advisor Dominic Barton, who founded the Century Initiative, with its calls for one hundred million Canadians by 2100. Rather than allow workers to enjoy the benefits of such an economy, Ottawa readily bought the “labour shortage” narrative and went about creating a lumpenproletariat, through the importation of hundreds of thousands international students and temporary workers.
Trudeau’s message tried to portray the move as the initially correct one — as a post-pandemic recovery and stimulus measure — even though it is seen now by economists for what it was: a clumsy “band-aid” solution to cover up an imminent recession by artificially inflating growth numbers. Trudeau then tried to shift the blame to the said “bad actors” seemingly without any understanding that it was his government that created the very conditions which allowed these bad actors to thrive over the last few years. Now, the Prime Minister says he is all in on finding ways to “effectively pause population growth” such as cutting both temporary and permanent immigration streams, and refocusing on skilled immigration.
After years of broken promises, however, Canadians are unlikely to buy it. Already, many of these temporary residents are beginning to claim asylum, to the tune of 14,000 new claims this year, as a means of circumventing their imminent deportation orders. The challenge for any Canadian government, now and in the future, will be in resisting the attempts of these migrants to stay. Reductions in future growth numbers will not be enough; Ottawa has to show Canadians that it has the will and the means to enforce its own policies and prevent the entrenchment of a new underclass, with all the threats to social and economic stability that it entails.
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SubscribeTrudeau has never taken responsibility for anything; why would he start now? The conditions in Canada are such that the only obvious conclusion is that they were intentional. No one likes to think that way of their govt, even a govt they did not vote for, but it remains true. When you run out of the usual reasons to explain results most people would consider to be lousy, you have to consider alternatives. And chief among the alternatives is that results do not stem from incompetence or stupidity, but rather, from intent.
Sure, but at least he’s smartened up and hopefully the rest of them in his Liberal government have realized it too letting so many people in so quickly was gonna backfire on them. It’s just another example to the left wing, pro immigrant parties of today that open border policies today are unsustainable.
Of course, JT finally acknowledging his immigration policies have blown up in his face, does absolutely nothing whatsoever to help him or his party politically. But I’m sure he regrets now not closing Roxham Road or ever allowing it to become any kind of unofficial crossing point to begin with.
His pals did very well.
Trudeau is all about unicorns, rainbows and money growing on trees. He’s a clueless idealist leading a government with the gravitas of a high school model UN club.
My take is Trudeau is about Trudeau.
Just listen to accounts of his government quitting on him, his reactions show complete narcissism. After Celina Caeser-Chavennes quit he is (approximately) quoted as immediately having the following outburst, “two women of color can’t quit on me on the same day, how can you do this to me!?”
He doesn’t dress as well as Stormin Starmer but he has better hair.
Utilitarianism has no electoral consent in Canada or anywhere else for that matter.
Trudeau is an odious clown but I agree that this in intentional. The Liberal Party has always been the party of the Laurentian Establishment. This is also right out of the WEF playbook – eroding borders and national identity to create pliable labour pools for the global order. The Trudeau government has tried, or floated test balloons, about every awful idea put out by that organization. One of his many scandals this week is that his $9M government investment in a company that sells crickets as food – is probably lost. You vill eat zee bugs! Don’t forget that our Deputy Prime Minister – Chrystia Freeland is on the board of trustees of the WEF.
I had not heard about the cricket farmers. Eww. Even Solyndra had a better story than that.
They ‘invested’ more money in electric car battery plants than it took (in real dollar terms) to build the Canadian National Railway across the entire continent. There is no idiotic progressive idea that they aren’t prepared to throw millions or billions of (borrowed) money at.
Trudeau has been the most successful leader in the west over the last decade and he will leave Canada in a far better place than he found it in 2015 when, as appears inevitable now, he will lose his attempt at a 4th term.
Its a shame he won’t be around to make Trump look ludicrous like he did in his first term – that was really funny!
I used to think your account was just an idiot, now I realise you’re clearly just trolling (quite effectively in fairness) because absolutely nobody on earth can look at Justin Trudeau as the example to follow of how to lead a country.
Not sure. Don’t put down to malignant intent what can be attributed to idiocy, as per Occam’s Razor.
One can be both stupid and evil.
And a masochist. Plonk Socialist loves the stings he gets.
It’s like Sauron but without a clue.
I think it’s a parody. No one could be this stupid in reality.
Take a look in the mirror, sport!
I’m afraid most people don’t agree, in Canada or anywhere else. You’re running short of woke, open borders, social justice globalists to shill for in these comments. Trudeau won’t make it past the next election. Scholz may not last that long. In that event, you’ll be down to Macron and I suppose Starmer, if his version of labour is socialist enough for you.
This is what happens when you elect a pretty face with a famous name and an empty head.
What? 3 consecutive election victories?
Trudeau may be trying to mend his terrible behavior, but his intent and his worldview remain as globalist and anti-Western values as ever. He loudly proclaimed his hatred for “Old Stock Canadians” and his admiration for the CCP before he ever got near the steering wheel, but a combination of swooning lefties and grateful foreigners has allowed him to drive Canada into the ditch.
Wait until the Trump migrants start coming en masse, we ain’t seen nothing yet, total chaos is coming on the border, the liberals will mess that up to. There is no place for them to live and not nearly enough jobs.
I predicted in another comment months ago that true believer globalist politicians would become political dinosaurs once the populist wave got big enough. Well, here we are. It’s amusing to me that the man is craven and shameless enough to try to get political credit for trying to solve a problem he himself created. It takes an accomplished liar to pretend to be totally surprised by the obvious consequences of an open borders policy.
Trudeau is as slippery as an eel. You knew what you were getting in Fidel Castro, his natural father, but Justin hasn’t had his old man’s advantage of a totalitarian system. He has made great strides in that direction, but it seems even the Canadians are on to him now.
Once they are in the door they are not leaving.