Keller: On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest

Nails it (money quote: “Even the government appears to have been largely unaware of its own actions, and even more ignorant of their consequences.”:

…When government makes policy, it usually consults with all of the stakeholders. It takes notes. It aims to please. And on temporary immigration, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall because he did exactly what all the king’s stakeholders and all the king’s lobbyists told him to do.

The business lobby said there was an economy-wide labour shortage – there isn’t, but sit through enough business stakeholder meetings and you’ll believe it. The solution was unlimited recruitment of low-wage overseas workers.

Colleges and universities said they needed an ever-growing number of student visas, their provincial masters mostly agreed, and business applauded because visa students were another low-wage work stream. A Quebec government that loudly demanded lower immigration quietly pressed for ever more temporary foreign workers. And progressive activists pushed for the lowering of all barriers to coming to Canada or remaining.

Year after year, the Liberals gave the stakeholders what they wanted. In a government-as-client-service model, it read like a success story.

But the sum of a bunch of narrow special interests does not add up to the national interest. It’s a pity this government didn’t figure that out sooner.

Source: On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest