Racist, Justin Trudeau? By Haroun Bouazzi standards, maybe so.
Because yes, in a YouTube presentation published on Sunday, the federal Prime Minister explained why he had to resolve to reduce immigration thresholds.
For permanent residents (PR), over the next two years it will be around -21%. We were supposed to welcome some 500,000 new RPs. In 2027, there will be 365,000.
Identity doesn’t matter
What a change of direction! What a 180 degree!
Because not so long ago, in May 2023, the federal government endorsed the so-called “of the century” initiative, dear to the Toronto business community, including Dominic Barton, CEO of McKinsey.
The objective? Radically increase the Canadian population so that by 2100, it will have 100 million inhabitants. The thresholds announced at the time by the then minister, Sean Fraser, were consistent with Barton’s major project.
Ottawa said that we should not worry about the effects of welcoming 500,000 RPs per year, not counting temporary workers, foreign students and asylum seekers.
Worrying was morally dubious: a reprehensible lack of hospitality. Identity risk? The Trudeau government argued that in a post-national era, all this was outdated. Moreover, the increase in thresholds did not take into account the effect on French.
(By the way, if identity is no longer important today, why not abolish the border between the ROC and the United States? Isn’t the future in large groups?)
In Quebec, on May 10, 2023, the National Assembly balked. Unanimously. QS and the Liberals, with the CAQ and the PQ, affirmed that “the increase in immigration levels planned by the federal government is incompatible with the protection of the French language in Quebec.” Guillaume Cliche-Rivard of QS admitted his “discomfort” with the immigration thresholds proposed by Ottawa.
Economy
For the Trudeau government (but also its NDP friends), the economic benefits of massive immigration were obvious: growth, prosperity, etc.
At the beginning of May 2023, The Journal had produced a landmark file on the risks of the federal “initiative”. Economist Mikal Skuterud of the University of Waterloo said: “Using immigration to solve labor shortages has the potential to weaken productivity and depress wages.”
It was also economists, those of the big Canadian banks, who brought Trudeau back to earth, from January 2024. With uncontrolled immigration, Canada was putting its arm into a “demographic trap” and undermining its growth and its GDP. per capita, etc. Worsening the housing crisis.
Since then, Trudeau and his ministers have continued to backpedal. We must give at least one thing to the lesson-givers of yesteryear. They had the elegance to admit this: “We could have […] turn off the taps more quickly”… and the courage to face the wrath of Bouazzi!
