The only thing that is surprising about the backlash against mass immigration is how long it took.
From the perspective of someone living in the GTA, it was beyond obvious that immigration from 2021 to 2024 was completely out of control to an insane level, causing immediate problems. It was clear from the start that 1) the intake targets across all categories were turned up way too high post-Covid (and were probably already too high before); 2) the employers and schools were committing what amounted to fraud on a massive scale; and 3) the quality of immigrants had dropped through the floor as the numbers skyrocketed.
The backlash should have taken months, not years. Canadians are so trusting of our governments, and so afraid of being controversial especially about something like race, that they are effectively blind and deaf to disasters right in front of them.
Instead of talking about immigration or crime, let's talk about effective and competent management instead. There can be no moving forward without acknowledgement that things are not working well for the country. If we can start to agree on common issues (too many repeat offenders, for example), then maybe we can get some solutions going before it gets too much worse.
On the immigration file. One thing that caught my attention is Rempel-Garner saying that for the first time in a while she was working with Pierre.
That is interesting. She was, briefly, on Patrick Brown’s campaign, and I’m not surprised she was on the outside for a while. That she isn’t anymore is a change.
I find it depressing that again Canada has to be so childish about the immigration debate. I've long noticed The Lines own squeamishness here.
It's sad that it takes conversations with immigrants to have more honesty and seriousness about the state of our immigration system and what we want out of it.
Of course ethic and national preferences already exist in policy. It's implicit in the systems, the very fact that we had a points-based system was creating preferences for a certain people and certain countries and characteristics. And then the fact with Trudeau where we widely opened immigration to specific countries like India . Again, these are discriminatory decisions happening in policy. But of course heaven forbid we talk about that!
I would just like the Line to get more adult about this. Or you, and the rest of the Canadian intellectual Elite, can continue to cede ground and become irrelevant on this issue.
It's messed up when the only acceptable way to criticize objectively insane immigration policies was from the perspective of slightly less recent immigrants. "Oh, there are concerns from pre-2020 immigrants who had to work harder to get in and prove they could do things like speak English or qualify for a job not at Tim Horton's". Well, yes, no shit.
But how about "we grew up here and the place is getting destroyed before our eyes"? So called 'old stock Canadians' didn't get to say a peep while possibly the most transformative policy of most of our lifetimes was rammed down our throats. Most other countries would have rioted, or failing that at least thrown out the government that did this.
Excellent guest, I’d love to hear from Stephanie Levitz more often!
The only thing that is surprising about the backlash against mass immigration is how long it took.
From the perspective of someone living in the GTA, it was beyond obvious that immigration from 2021 to 2024 was completely out of control to an insane level, causing immediate problems. It was clear from the start that 1) the intake targets across all categories were turned up way too high post-Covid (and were probably already too high before); 2) the employers and schools were committing what amounted to fraud on a massive scale; and 3) the quality of immigrants had dropped through the floor as the numbers skyrocketed.
The backlash should have taken months, not years. Canadians are so trusting of our governments, and so afraid of being controversial especially about something like race, that they are effectively blind and deaf to disasters right in front of them.
Not crossing the streams was a 70s high school fave in the washrooms.
Instead of talking about immigration or crime, let's talk about effective and competent management instead. There can be no moving forward without acknowledgement that things are not working well for the country. If we can start to agree on common issues (too many repeat offenders, for example), then maybe we can get some solutions going before it gets too much worse.
On the immigration file. One thing that caught my attention is Rempel-Garner saying that for the first time in a while she was working with Pierre.
That is interesting. She was, briefly, on Patrick Brown’s campaign, and I’m not surprised she was on the outside for a while. That she isn’t anymore is a change.
I find it depressing that again Canada has to be so childish about the immigration debate. I've long noticed The Lines own squeamishness here.
It's sad that it takes conversations with immigrants to have more honesty and seriousness about the state of our immigration system and what we want out of it.
Of course ethic and national preferences already exist in policy. It's implicit in the systems, the very fact that we had a points-based system was creating preferences for a certain people and certain countries and characteristics. And then the fact with Trudeau where we widely opened immigration to specific countries like India . Again, these are discriminatory decisions happening in policy. But of course heaven forbid we talk about that!
I would just like the Line to get more adult about this. Or you, and the rest of the Canadian intellectual Elite, can continue to cede ground and become irrelevant on this issue.
It's messed up when the only acceptable way to criticize objectively insane immigration policies was from the perspective of slightly less recent immigrants. "Oh, there are concerns from pre-2020 immigrants who had to work harder to get in and prove they could do things like speak English or qualify for a job not at Tim Horton's". Well, yes, no shit.
But how about "we grew up here and the place is getting destroyed before our eyes"? So called 'old stock Canadians' didn't get to say a peep while possibly the most transformative policy of most of our lifetimes was rammed down our throats. Most other countries would have rioted, or failing that at least thrown out the government that did this.