Need to get a life as during my vacation break monitored Canadian media and collated these articles that I found of interest. Likely missed some.
The ones I found most interesting:
Donald Wright: We are not going to build our way out of the housing crisis. The harsh reality… Along with Donald Wright: When it comes to where people want to live, Canada is a very small country, Donald Wright: Urban densification is not going to solve our housing crisis, Donald Wright: The first step in solving Canada’s housing crisis? Implement a non-delusional immigration policy. “I calculate that Canada will need to limit the number of new PRs and net increase in NPRs to an average of 175,000 per year between now and 2031. This is a significant reduction from the 640,000 per year average over the past five years.”
Jason Kenney’s biggest worry about the U.S. election: A potential deportation program. “If he was still immigration minister, Mr. Kenney would make changes such as beefing up the Safe Third Country Agreement and increasing the Canada Border Services Agency’s resources. “I would make it clear that Canada is an open and welcoming country, but you have to go through the normal legal process.”’ His overall take on the Liberal record in this interview: Trudeau has ‘catastrophically mismanaged’ immigration: Jason Kenney
Laura Wright | Canada’s fertility rate has plummeted. Maybe we shouldn’t care. Good call to recognize demographic realities and focus on how to re-examine existing programs in light of this trend, rather than merely trying to delay it through immigration.
Simpson: Blame the four fatal ‘I’s of Justin Trudeau for the lacklustre state of the Liberals. On immigration: “Historians of this period will look at cabinet records to figure out why the Liberals took the decisions they did that turned public opinion against immigration and the incumbent government. Was it the old Liberal reflex that immigrants usually vote Liberal so the more the merrier? Was it a response to those who proposed that Canada should become a country of 100 million people? Was it a response to business leaders who wanted more cheap labour? Was it the Liberal/liberal reflex to want to do good rather than to be smart? Was it a response to higher education institutions whose budgets were stressed by inadequate provincial funding and so needed foreign students whom they could charge higher fees? Was the push for record-high immigration needed to fill the gap of a declining birth rate? Was it that a party that had wrapped itself in self-virtue could not believe that a variation of what had happed in other Western democracies could not and would not happen here? Was it blind incompetence not to appreciate that driving up immigration and refugees to unprecedented numbers would produce a myriad of negative side effects and destroy what had been close to a consensus in favour of previous levels of newcomers?”
Clark: Marc Miller and a mea culpa makes a rare success. “Yet Mr. Miller has taken steps that have turned around the trend. It’s hard for governments to claim credit for acknowledging their big, bad mistakes, and fixing them. But in politics, that should be rated as a rare success.”
‘Alarming trend’ of more international students claiming asylum: minister. Belated recognition of the perverse incentives at play and the likely need for further corrective actions. Marc Miller Strikes Again provides HESA’s critique of federal actions and that fed-prov consultations should have possible to achieve comparable results. This will be the next shoe to drop in our broken immigration system, Tony Keller on Miller’s admission and the further increases in asylum claimants and overstays.
Schools Make Millions Offering Degrees That Double as Work Visas (USA). Not unique to Canada. “A record 24,000 foreign graduate students were enrolled in schools offering Day 1 CPT — or curricular practical training — as of fall 2022, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of the most recent available Department of Education data. At typical prices, tuition probably topped $240 million, Bloomberg estimates.”
Waterloo’s international graduates outearn Canadian-born students, paving the way for immigration policies, experts say. Coverage of Skuterud’s case study for University of Waterloo international students.
Urback: Canada is sleepwalking into a refugee crisis. We need to act now. Another highlighting of the consequences of lack of foresight and likely not listening to public service advice. “It’s not ideal that those legitimately seeking refuge in Canada may be denied the opportunity, but it’s a consequence of this government ignoring years of warnings. It cannot ignore these next ones.”
Lisée | Les difficultés temporaires de François Legault. “François Legault avait promis de mieux gérer l’immigration et d’y arriver dans le cadre fédéral. Force est de constater que, loin d’avoir réussi à « en prendre moins », son gouvernement a activement exacerbé la situation pendant plusieurs années, avant de réaliser, penaud, dans quel pétrin il avait contribué à plonger le Québec.”
Most Canadians say citizens who stay in high-risk conflict zones don’t deserve government protection: Leger poll. Not surprising and understandable. “Canadians of convenience.” Also Flight leaves Lebanon with about one-third of seats reserved for Canadians filled.
Chris Selley: For anti-Israel protesters, October 7 anniversary is an unofficial citizenship test. Yep.
Combatting hate in Canada. Announcement of expanded funding for a variety of programs and initiatives ($273.6 million over six years, and $29.3 million ongoing) without, it would appear, any substantive change from the INSERT evaluation. Likely will be significantly cut back under a Conservative government.
Robert P. George: A Princeton Professor’s Advice to Young Conservatives. “Grievance identitarianism — be it of the left or the right — impedes the very thing a student is attending university to do: namely, think and learn. It turns a person into a tribalist, someone who, rather than thinking for oneself, outsources one’s thinking to the group.”
Allen | The wounds of October 7 cannot heal until there is peace. “I yearn for a Canada whose citizens can hold in their hearts sympathy and understanding for all those killed and maimed during this period. I wish that students on campus and Canadians more generally understood that both sides view themselves as victims and that each side bears some blame for the current crisis. I acknowledge that Palestinians have been under the yoke of an illegal occupation for over five decades and that this must end. Unfortunately, the fears and hatred generated by the Oct. 7 attack have made the task harder.”
John Ivison: Flag-burning Islamists in our streets would kill us with our own tolerance. “Hostilities may not have been declared, but if you don’t think Canada is in a fight for all it holds dear, you should watch the forces of radical Islam calling for the death of Canada on the streets of Vancouver, while holding the remnants of a burned Maple Leaf flag.”
Gopnik: The tragedy of our time is that antisemitism rises equally from the left and right. “Every person is a world in an agonizingly literal sense. Let’s recall that one of the few texts that passes complete from Jewish scripture to Islamic scripture is the injunction that “Whoever kills a soul, it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.”
The Functionary: Interview with Peter Wallace. Thoughtful discussion between Kathryn May and Wallace. Some of my favourite quotes, good reading for those preparing for a Conservative government:
“We want people to trust government, but they really should be skeptical about what government does with authority and they really should push back on that.”
“We’re mystified (as to) why people can be upset with government, and I don’t think we should be. The reality is governments are often times incredibly intrusive.”
“It’s incredibly important to remember that today’s dissidents are often tomorrow’s heroes. We must be cautious about shutting people out of the policy process.”
“The public pays for what we do, and they have a right to see our work. We need to demonstrate our value and show that we are thoughtful and competent. So, let’s embrace that scrutiny.”
“We’ve got to have metrics to help us understand individually at a gut level what we’re doing with that money. We have to be satisfied before we advise an expense that it’s actually worth the opportunity cost, worth the fiscal cost.
Full list attached:
