April 3, 2024 - 7:00pm
Temporary immigration is too high and putting undue pressure on Canadians, Justin Trudeau has claimed.
“Over the past few years we’ve seen a massive spike in temporary immigration,” the Canadian Prime Minister told an audience on Tuesday. “Whether it’s temporary foreign workers, or whether it’s international students in particular that have grown at a rate that’s far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”
Trudeau delivered the remarks while promoting an infrastructure project aimed at building more housing. While he reiterated his support for immigration generally, he warned that the surge in temporary migrants was causing problems and needed to be reined in. “In 2017, 2% of Canada’s population was made up by temporary immigrants,” he said. “Now we’re at 7.5% of our population […] That’s something that we need to get back under control.”
The comments come amid a deluge of bad polls for Trudeau, who is currently trailing Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre by 14 percentage points in popularity. Poilievre has repeatedly campaigned on immigration, saying that “after eight years of Trudeau, our entire immigration system is ruined”, and that the PM “opened the floodgates” in a way that was disconnected from the number of homes to house people, and the amount of jobs to employ them.
Trudeau’s immigration U-turn may come as a surprise to many. Until recently, the Canadian PM has been a vocal proponent of immigration and at one point even accused a woman of racism after she asked pointed questions about his policies in 2018.
Since he took power in 2015 Canada has brought in record numbers of immigrants, welcoming about 2.5 million new permanent residents. The country also saw a massive surge in international students in recent years, which many Canadians blame for rising housing costs and increased pressure on the public healthcare system.
At the same time, Canadians have become more sceptical of immigration, with polls now finding that about three quarters believe rising immigration is contributing to high housing costs and a strained healthcare system, while 67% believe the country’s annual immigration goal is too high.
“Increasingly, more and more businesses are relying on temporary foreign workers in a way that’s driving down wages in some sectors,” he said. “So we want to get those numbers down.”
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeWindow dressing. There’s also an article in today’s Unherd about Irish progressive politicians now backpedaling on issues such as immigration.
The progressive establishment is feeling the pressure from growing populism and so pretend to pay attention to the desires of the majority. But let’s see what actions they take in the near future.
In today’s Politico there’s an article about the Biden administration condemning Israel’s killing of aid workers in Gaza, and the high civilian death toll, but taking no action to rein in Israel.
It’s all just window dressing.
Totally agree; even Auntie Ursula is claiming that she will listen to the voters.
Big joke.
A Big joke indeed. The PM is a BIG BAD joke
For an accurate assessment of the PM refer to Jordan Peterson
There isn’t a high civilian death toll in Gaza. It is on par with recent war statistics. Also, the aid workers are in a war zone. Mistakes happen. Anyway, all this death is on the Gazans who continue to support Hamas.
That’s right, they knew the risks. That chef shouldn’t have been blubbering on television as if he didn’t know it could be a possibility.
Conservatives all over need to take a page from Ron DeSantis. If Progressive policies create a problem, Progressive politicians don’t get to Gaslight the public by pretending they never advocated this stuff.
These policy rollbacks are not “Bipartisan” and its not “divisive” to point out whose policies were right and whose policies were comically wrong and incredibly unproductive.
I live in Florida. I don’t agree with DeSantis on a number of issues (Disney and reproductive rights), but he has made and is making Florida a safer and saner place to live (making camping in public areas such as parks and streets illegal, etc.; continues setting bail for criminal arrests, and ending DEI at public universities, among other recent legislation) and by being fiscally responsible, left the state of Florida with a budget surplus.
There are still some very problematic issues such as homeowners and auto insurance. These need to be addressed in favor of the consumer and not the insurance industry. We almost always have at least one major hurricane per season in Florida so the insurance crisis is important for all Floridians.
We have not had the troubles with illegal immigrants recently as Florida has had in the past. My take on this is that the state government (DeSantis and the Legislature), along with some of the municipal governments are not as welcoming as some other states, such as New York and California.
The Florida Legislature is overwhelming Republican in both houses, so no gaslighting Progressive propaganda emerges from Tallahassee. The Democratic party focuses on trying to elect Democratic candidates, and not promoting identity politics and blatantly wrong and unproductive policies. This is what happens when you’re (Democrats) in the political wilderness for many years.
Thanks for response. Just curious- what do you think DeSantis was wrong about with Disney? For the record, I think its an extremely complicated legal issue. I’m just curious about your take.
He needed to leave Florida’s biggest cash cow and employer alone. Disney, despite their problems, has done a lot for the Orlando area and Florida. DeSanctis and the Florida Legislature had no business trying to force their religious beliefs upon Disney by taking over Disney’s tax district (which saved Orange County and Florida a lot of money). This was all about the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” last year (Disney was against it).
Please look it up on the Internet because I am tired of anything to do with it (I included a link at the end of the post for you). The ceaseless fighting and bickering of both sides of the debate about the bill wore out moderate Floridians such as myself (we do exist).
There are more important and pressing issues in Florida. DeSanctis is an effective administrator and should focus on more on solving Florida’s problems rather than forcing Christian extremist beliefs on the state.
We are ground zero for hurricanes, especially starting in August until the end of October. September is particularly bad. The issues this situation creates (insurance, need for Cat 5 proof infrastructure, how to keep people from living right by the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico so they won’t have everything destroyed the next time a big one rolls through, etc.) really require his attention rather than trying to attract Trump Republicans.
He lost his presidential bid. Time to stay home and fix some real problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Parental_Rights_in_Education_Act
Hope this post enlightens you.
I’m very familiar with the Florida Coast, the Law in question and the circumstances surrounding Disney. I just wanted to hear your perspective.
I could respond in quite a bit of detail with some omitted pieces of information and while I disagree with some of your rhetoric, I appreciate that you can acknowledge his competence.
Thanks for reading. I guess my perspective come from living here and having to deal more with hurricanes and other storms rather than Public School fights. Those, in my opinion, should be left to local voters and the local School Boards.
I’m glad you’ve educated yourself about that law. It took up too much time, energy, money and effort that should have been placed on more pressing needs. Hurricane Ian and its statewide aftermath are a fine example.
My handyman’s rental home was damaged in a severe hurricane/tropical storm last year (His rental was in the northern center of the state, as far away from the coast as possible). His landlord spent the money received from the insurance company on himself, not fixing his rental. Fortunately, my handyman and his family were able to move to a better place, but the insurance law should have been set up so that the landlord was reviewed to see if the damage had been fixed. They didn’t receive the money the insurance company paid for their personal losses – their landlord kept that as well.
Many people have had theur homeowners insurance cancelled in Florida, or can’t even get it except through the state which is very expensive.
That’s a big deal down here. I still have homeowners, but I don’t even consider filing a claim since I am concerned about losing my coverage.
Have you ever lived here? It’s very different from reading about Florida or even visiting here.
I am here because my late husband wanted to live here. I’ve thought about going back home to NC, but most of my friends have retired and moved or have died (a lot happens in 25 years). We’ll see what happens to Florida. Hopefully, we’ll escape a major hurricane this year.
I can appreciate your perspective on Public School Fights but public education is a State and not a Federal Government function. If local schools are infusing an anti-meritocratic political ideology into the curriculum than the State government can’t sit idle or they’ll have failing schools and ultimately a failing economy.
My wife is from Florida and both sides of our family have recently been affected by Hurricanes. I would just say that Hurricanes have always been a feature of Florida. You kind of bake that into the equation. It’s a low lying State in the direct path of tropical storm systems just like New Orleans and the Galveston. Despite media hysteria, there is not evidence that Hurricanes are increasing. There have been some bigger storms recently that hit areas outside the Panhandle (which typically sees the most damage due to location) but I don’t think you can ever live on the Gulf and assume year-long tranquility. Premiums are definitely increasing as Insurance Companies recognize the increasing risk due to expanded coastal property development. More Ocean-Front mansions means higher dollar payouts.
I’m sorry to hear about your husband and hope you can dodge the big storms.
Nice to know you’re wife is from Florida.
I lived in Tampa Bay for many years at St. Pete Beach do I am very familiar with tropical storms and hurricanes. That’s why I now live in North Central Florida as far away from the coast as possible.
Our hurricanes are becoming stronger and more devastating. We had a major one come through last September that left a lot of damage in the north central part of the state which is not the norm. That, as I stated in my previous post, was very bad for my handyman and his family.
I also belong to NextDoor and receive news of the members, where I live, having homeowners insurance problems. There have been many more of them recently. If this is happening in a city considered as a hurricane refuge center, then I can imagine what it’s like farther south (Tampa Bay, Sarasota, etc.).
We are expecting a much more active hurricane season this year. I don’t look forward to it. Winter is the best season here.
Sorry about your families’ hurricane losses. I hope there were no injuries and that they have recovered.
As to public schools, my take on them is that they’re a combination of state and local governments. Local property taxes are the main funding mechanism, which also muddies the waters.
My opinion is that schools should teach reading, writing, math and science before anything else. All politics, left and right, have no business in schools. I believe in meritocracy and also that students should be taught the essentials.
I attended a rural western NC school system. It wasn’t the greatest, but emphasis was placed on graduates having enough literacy and numeracy to successfully function in the adult world. Politics of any sort (and this was during the Viet Nam war) was frowned upon by the student body. We were more concerned with graduating and getting jobs or going to college.
Perhaps the voters of the great state of Florida at the state and local level can return our schools to their original purpose of teaching the basics of reading, writing, math and the other important knowledge skills for success in the adult world. This would require a number of groups putting essential education before leftist or rightist politics. Is that possible? It would be nice, though I doubt it will ever happen.
My husband had a long and successful life. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 84. He achieved his dream of living somewhere warm and sunny. I was very happy for him since I loved him a great deal. He was a very fortunate man.
I hope your families don’t gave any problems with hurricanes this season. Hopefully they will all be mild tropical storms.
Western North Carolina is maybe my favorite place in the entire country. We went to Lake Lure last year. It’s cut out of the mountains almost like you’re in Switzerland on a smaller scale. Little mountain towns are the best.
In my opinion, the best that you can do as a society is allow the most talented people to rise while instilling humility. That we are neglecting basic truths on things like biology that everybody understood for thousands of years has to stop. You can be kind and sensitive without eroding educational standards or constantly placating overly sensitive people at the expense of others.
I think people today have excess information. It’s hard to know what to think with so much information. If you don’t compartmentalize it correctly, everything is confusing.
In the past I think people had more common sense because they weren’t overwhelmed with excess information. I don’t know, that’s just my hypothesis. What do you think?
Look at Europe. Every first-world country is experiencing a mass invasion, and there is little that can be done to stop it. There is little will, and perhaps no effective and acceptable tactics. The one country doing a fairly effective job is coming under heavy political attack. Hence, window dressing is the order of the day.
There is a way to stop it; it involves force and arms, and the sinking of boats. It also involves not rewarding `bad behaviour’ by allowing criminals to remain because of their human rights – to hell with the victims having any rights, and allowing them to draw from social programmes neither they nor their ancestors contributed to.
The Progressives simply don’t want to admit we’re being invaded, taken advantage of and are build the funeral pyre for the West.
Nation states like the UK, Canada and the USA are being inundated by out-of-control immigration for two chief reasons:
Woke political elites seek to destroy the nation state by importing huge numbers of migrants who have no interest in or commitment to their host cultures [‘The Great Replacement’]; and Left-Wing lawyers (including the judiciary) foster the ‘human rights’ of minorities above those of the majorities they are supposed to serve.The combination of these two dynamics has fundamentally and irrevocably changed the world from what we knew as the Democratic Era until relatively recently.
Don’t forget the chamber of commerce libertarians and republicans who desire cheap labor.
They know what they are doing make no mistake about it.
Ireland made their wishes known and I’m afraid that is what will be required.
Australia has had an effective immigration program for decades. It’s possible.
“It’s all just window dressing”
Though since any faint disquiet about immigration was a sign of the “far right”, marching fascism and the end of democracy until these recent announcements, it must feel to these politicians that they’re being forced to smear s**t on their windows.
Freezing people’s bank accounts for supporting criticism of the government, euthanasia for patients far beyond the terminally ill, full range 6 cylinder woke political policy – I could do on.
Justin sounds charming.
I suspect the window dressing is because the population finally woke up to what’s going on and ain’t happy…
Lots of back pedalling but too late Justin. You bought it, you broke it. Likewise noises in Ireland presently. Too late.
Its like having the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
Never underestimate the wilful stupidity (blindness?) of voters in the GTA or BC; for too many of them he still walks on water despite black face and groping
Israel doesn’t need to be ‘reined in’ they are at war. We sure as hale wouldn’t be reining in anything if terrorists had parachuted in and lopped a few heads, gouged out a few eyes and raped a few women on our own soil….oh wait I forgot we are under the regime that gives zero f’s about us.
Even immigrants know there is too much immigration in Canada. It will take a generation of two to recover from the Progressive madness represented by Trudeau. My fear is that activist judges will hamstring government through bogus legal opinions.
It was his father PE Trudeau who empowered the courts over Parliament when he repatriated the Constitution in 1982; he was more interested in creating a legacy than getting it right
P Trudeau was a vainglorious fop like his son. Both men were able to play to the camera and media.
Captain Obvious and years-late-to-the-party speaks. Turns out all of those racists, xenophobes, and neo-nazis who warned of foreseeable consequences knew something after all.
They’ll still be labeled as xenophobes, racists, bigots and neo Nazis when the Liberals start their 2025 election campaign, especially when campaigning in areas with high immigration. The Liberals basically count on immigrants to keep them in power
Trudeau knows elections are won in The GTA due to its high immigrant population.
Blimey, is he still actually really the Canadian PM? I’d simply assumed he had gone the way of what’s her name in New Zealand and that odd Irish man. Does anyone believe a word they say any more? He can’t have long left, surely?
He’s there until Oct 2025, unless someone can convince him to step down-which given his ego isn’t going to happen
Who can replace Trudeau in the Liberal Party? Methhead Freeland?
This shows the strength of the populist movement. You don’t have to elect a populist leader to affect policy change. Even dunderheads like Trudeau will eventually get the message. The problem with Trudeau isn’t that he will change his mind about immigration once elected. The problem is that he will be incapable of actually devising a plan to address the issue. He’s not smart enough or invested enough to make real change. He will nibble around the edges and make ineffective changes.
The big problem is that they don’t understand the issues. The solution to big government isn’t bigger government.
In Canada, almost no one is really anti-immigration, generally speaking. We are, after all, a true nation of immigrants, with people lacking at least one grandparent born abroad being uncommon. Our success in integrating people from all corners of the globe was due, however, to strategic immigration practices – it’s one of the few things we (used to) consistently excel at.
The recent backlash is not so much against immigration itself but against the poor execution of immigration policies. It’s really a broader reaction to our far too long-standing government’s inability to effectively execute anything at all.
I would guess someone might be thrown under the bus for causing this situation “we’ve seen” and had absolutely nothing to do with and are so surprised by. That is, unless their new strategy is to just flagrantly, bewilderedly run against their own record, which they’ve realized far too late is turning out to be incredibly unpopular. Next up, we’ll wonder how this whole carbon tax thing came about, anyway.
Open borders policies and traditional immigration are two separate and distinct things.
In Russian there is an expression “Change your shoes on the fly.” It’s about Trudeau
At some point immigration becomes invasion, de-facto or otherwise. People calling these numbers ‘immigration’ are either evil or greedy ( want it to happen) or stupid.
“There’s too much immigration into Canada!”
…. says the man responsible for flooding Canada with immigrants. I long ago observed that Trudeau is more than eager to declare all Canadians as being guilty of something and apologize ad nauseam on our behalf, but when it comes to his own actions he’ll never apologize, never admit fault, and will viciously lash out anyone who dares question his obvious righteousness.
The man is a clear and utter narcissist, and whatever irreparable harm he’s caused to our slowly disintegrating nation is our own goddamn fault for electing him so many times!
Look at his father PE Trudeau, the apple didn’t fall far fro the tree.
Trudeau and his handlers must be worried about the federal elections due to take place before October 2025. The `spike’ in both illegal and legal migration is a direct result of Liberal policies.
Not to worry though, he (and his minions in the MSM) will find someway to blame Stephen Harper and the Conservative government that hasn’t been in power for almost a decade, and if these doesn’t work they’ll start demonizing Poilievre and the Conservatives as far right Nazis, and the GTA & BC will fall for it.
Canada fell for the line “we need foreign workers”.
It’s a classic economic error. Business get cheap labour at low wages and low tax payers =better profit. The Huge costs of extra public services needed falls on the tax payer.
There is only one solution. Half the federal government budget and don’t borrow any money. That’s the only way they would have a chance at figuring out what the core fed government should look like.
Guys! Trudeau created this mess, with a full understanding of what the consequences would be. He is now pretending to be all surprised – where did all these foreign students come from?? HIS government changed laws to allow all the temporary foreign workers in, KNOWING from research his government paid for that they suppress wages among low skilled workers. Do NOT be fooled by this guy.
Leave it to Justin Trudeau to push us into the water, then try to take glory for handing us a life preserver. Which immediately sinks.
If Canada had the same population density as Singapore, there would be enough space for 80 billion people to live in comfort, peace, and harmony. I’d say Canada has PLENTY of room! 😉
Trudeau is, of course, speaking in code about Muslim immigrants who, since the 1970s, have made Canada home in rapidly increasing numbers. Muslims are now five percent – one in twenty – of Canada’s population. They have congregated in Toronto and to a lesser degree Montreal. They arrive speaking neither the Queen’s English or Trudeau’s father’s French. They are not European. But Canada is a vast land with more than enough space, wealth and opportunity to accommodate every Muslim from Gaza. Muslims in Canada know this as do those in Gaza. And there is a lot of kitchen table chatter about this.
Seem to remember Tony Blair rowing back in just this way (to no avail as, perhaps, was intended)