Juno News - December 04, 2023


Pierre Poilievre won’t say this about Canada’s housing crisis


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

166.24832

Word Count

2,561

Sentence Count

166

Hate Speech Sentences

10


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 If you've spent any time on social media over the weekend, you have likely come across Pierre
00:00:11.240 Polyev's new video on Canada's housing crisis. Slick editing, well made, right now it's got
00:00:17.280 over 3 million impressions on X and over 180,000 views on YouTube. Here's a preview of what is in
00:00:24.600 the video. After generations of affordable and stable Canadian home prices, it now takes 66%
00:00:30.560 of the average monthly income to make payments on the average single detached Canadian house.
00:00:36.100 Given that most of the remaining 34% of the family paycheck is taken up by taxes, there's literally
00:00:41.440 nothing left for food and recreation. And that all assumes that you have enough for a down payment
00:00:46.120 to get the mortgage in the first place. Saving up for that down payment in Toronto now takes an
00:00:51.560 average of 25 years. Not long ago, you paid off a mortgage in that time. Now a common refrain you'll
00:00:58.240 hear from Canadians who have become disillusioned with the state of politics in our country over
00:01:02.000 the past few years, which frankly at this point is everyone, is that politicians only care about
00:01:07.540 winning elections. They only care about staying in power. And if solving the problems that are faced
00:01:12.320 by Canadians every single day might get in the way of winning elections, it might jeopardize
00:01:17.760 their electoral success, then it's a pretty safe bet to assume that those problems aren't going to be
00:01:23.420 solved anytime soon. And the way politicians usually figure all this stuff out is by using focus groups
00:01:28.980 in public polling. But what happens when in poll after poll, year after year, the majority of Canadians
00:01:35.420 fall on one side of a major issue facing the country, let's call it maybe the biggest issue facing our
00:01:42.460 country at the moment. And politicians from both the Conservative and the Liberal Party fall on the
00:01:48.000 complete opposite side of the majority of Canadians, with no difference between both major parties.
00:01:53.620 I'm of course talking about mass immigration, the main issue through which all other issues in this
00:01:58.800 country stem from. The most obvious being Canada's housing crisis. Now if you go looking for a difference
00:02:05.300 between the Conservatives and the Liberals over mass immigration, you won't find anything at all. I find that
00:02:11.080 to be strange, and quite honestly, concerning. And I think you should as well. But before we get into
00:02:16.440 the video, drop a like in the video, help us out with subscribing to the True North YouTube channel,
00:02:20.280 and the comment question for the episode is this. How many public opinion polls need to be published
00:02:25.660 before Pierre Polyev releases an immigration strategy? Let me know in the comments, and let's get
00:02:31.160 into it. Here is some more of that Pierre Polyev video on the housing crisis in Canada.
00:02:35.920 Canadian prices, which are so much higher than in other countries, are determined by supply and demand.
00:02:42.180 We have the fewest houses per capita in the G7, even though we have the most land to build on.
00:02:47.960 We have fewer houses per capita today than we did eight years ago, as population has outgrown home
00:02:53.700 building. Canada built fewer homes last year than it built in 1972, 50 years ago. Consider this.
00:03:01.720 In 1972, Canada's population was 22 million, and we built about 230,000 homes. In 2022,
00:03:11.940 Canada's population was 39 million, and we built about 220,000 homes. In other words,
00:03:19.500 far more people, far less home building. Of course, Polyev gets some things right. The most obvious being
00:03:25.980 that homes just aren't being built. Also, massive federal deficits and overspending have shrunk the
00:03:31.660 value of the Canadian dollar through inflation. And because of that, the Bank of Canada has had to
00:03:36.440 hike lending rates, causing a wave of canceled home building projects. But for a brief moment there,
00:03:43.080 Polyev discussed supply and demand, and Canada's spike in population. But instead of saying what
00:03:49.020 every Canadian knows to be true, Polyev just skipped the part about capping demand. And Canadians,
00:03:56.880 in the comments section of his video, noticed that. End mass immigration. 1.2,000 likes. Get out by
00:04:05.760 stopping mass immigration. That is all. 1.6,000 likes. This is a great documentary, and it's encouraging
00:04:14.140 to see a future PM educating in a longer format than the usual rhetoric. There's one thing missing from this
00:04:20.100 doc. More needs to be said about mass immigration. It's a huge factor in housing pricing. You can't avoid
00:04:26.840 the topic. The Canadian dream of home ownership cannot die. Our children deserve what we had.
00:04:33.640 We need a moratorium on mass immigration immediately. Now this is where things start
00:04:38.900 to get a little concerning. Since Polyev became leader of the Conservative Party, he has refused
00:04:43.660 to touch the immigration issue at all. Many of his commitments are exactly what you would expect to
00:04:48.520 see from the Liberal Party. One of Pierre Polyev's promises is that he will institute a Blue Seal test
00:04:54.400 to get foreign workers credentialed in their professions within 60 days in Canada. But when
00:05:00.860 it comes to lowering immigration into Canada, the best Canadians have received from Pierre Polyev is a
00:05:06.380 commitment to move away from set numbers and targets and instead tie immigration to demand here in Canada.
00:05:14.580 My policy, my common sense policy on immigration will be driven by the number of vacancies that
00:05:21.040 private sector employers want to fill, the number of charities that want to sponsor refugees and the
00:05:29.340 families that want to reunite quickly with loved ones. Let's base it on common sense, not on
00:05:35.420 Justin Trudeau's ideology and incompetence. And that's how we'll restore the immigration system
00:05:42.500 that is before his arrival been more successful than any other great immigration system on earth.
00:05:48.100 But that is not a commitment to lower immigration at all. In fact, a Polyev government could simply
00:05:52.400 just say that the Canadian economy requires more immigrants than what we are bringing in right now.
00:05:57.500 Because of that, more will have to come. So saying that you will move away from set numbers and targets
00:06:03.020 and instead tie immigration to demand is not really a commitment to lower immigration. Meanwhile,
00:06:09.280 a new public opinion poll produced by Abacus Research shows that 67% of respondents, 67% of Canadians
00:06:18.000 think immigration is too high compared to just 2% that think immigration is too low. That number, 67%
00:06:27.060 that think Canada's immigration targets are too high, is almost mirrored exactly by immigrants
00:06:32.960 themselves. 62% of immigrants, according to Abacus Data, also think that Canada's immigration targets
00:06:40.280 are too high. And only 15% of respondents to this Abacus Data poll said that they felt their community
00:06:46.840 needed more immigrants. Only 15%. And here is the kicker when it comes to this Abacus Data poll.
00:06:53.380 69% of Canadians who responded to this poll feel that new immigrants have a negative effect on the cost
00:07:00.860 and availability of housing. Wow, go figure with that one. Talk about a common sense plan. And that was
00:07:06.800 only from one poll, which just so happened to be published last week. At the end of October,
00:07:11.400 Canada's longest running poll on immigration showed a sharp drop in the public support over high
00:07:17.940 immigration targets. According to BNN Bloomberg, some 44% of respondents now agree with the statement
00:07:24.460 that there's too much immigration to Canada compared with just 27% last year. Although those who disagree
00:07:30.920 with that statement are still the majority, they now make up just 51%, the lowest since 1998. That's a
00:07:38.900 decrease from 69%, previously the highest level on record. Or take this Nanos research poll commissioned by
00:07:46.880 Bloomberg News back in August, which showed the exact same figures. 68% of Canadians surveyed said
00:07:53.700 they believe increased immigration targets will either negatively impact or somewhat negatively impact
00:07:59.320 the cost of housing. It's poll after poll where the results are the same. Yet for some reason,
00:08:04.940 the opposition in this country won't talk about the issue. So it's kind of strange that Pierre
00:08:10.680 Polyev can make a 15 minute video on the housing crisis and not mention immigration once. Not even
00:08:16.860 use the word immigration. And what's even weirder is that it's not just Pierre Polyev who's refused
00:08:21.540 to talk about immigration. It seems as though every single Conservative MP has been told to stay
00:08:26.900 silent on the issue or just to support more immigrants coming into Canada. Take, for example,
00:08:32.440 the housing shadow minister for the Conservative Party, Scott Aitchison. He was asked a few days ago
00:08:38.180 about this new poll, which shows that Canadians, three in four Canadians, think that high immigration
00:08:44.180 targets are having a negative effect on the cost and availability of housing. What did Scott Aitchison
00:08:49.500 say? We need more Canadians and immigration is not the problem. Two thirds of Canadians are linking
00:08:55.440 higher immigration levels to the housing crunch and worsening health care pressures in the health
00:09:00.960 care system. Well, there's no question that this government hasn't planned for anything. There's no
00:09:08.000 question we need more Canadians to help us fund an economy that's struggling to find people that work.
00:09:13.040 And so it's part of the problem. But this is another classic situation where you have a federal
00:09:18.340 government that is long on photo ops and talking points and short on results. But you believe that
00:09:23.580 higher immigration levels are part of the problem that we're facing with housing right now? I don't
00:09:27.240 think they're a problem. I think that they're part of the situation. The situation is that we have a
00:09:32.420 general lack of supply. We need more units. And we haven't been planning for more units for decades
00:09:37.620 now. And this government's just finally starting to wake up to the fact that they've bungled the file.
00:09:42.460 And it's not racist or xenophobic to say that lowering immigration levels will help solve the
00:09:48.400 housing crisis. It's basic mathematics. It's basic facts. In fact, Canada already did this to solve a
00:09:55.800 housing crisis, a housing shortage in the 1970s. Canada cut back on immigration to solve the housing
00:10:02.700 crisis back then. It's a basic supply and demand question. Canada had to get demand back in check
00:10:09.360 with supply. In fact, I asked Pierre Polyev this exact question a few months ago, if he was prepared
00:10:14.940 to lower immigration targets in order to solve the housing crisis. Of course, he sidestepped the
00:10:20.660 question and refused to talk about lowering immigration. In the 1970s, the Canadian government
00:10:24.840 was able to solve the housing crisis by lowering immigration and building more homes. So far,
00:10:29.340 you've refused to commit to cutting immigration targets. But would a Polyev government adopt the
00:10:33.540 same strategy that worked so well in the 70s to build more homes? To build more homes? Absolutely.
00:10:39.260 In fact, in 1972, we built more houses than we built last year. Think about that. 50 years ago,
00:10:48.980 we built more homes than we did last year. So let's do the math. In 1972, Canada's population was 2.2 million
00:10:56.580 people. Sorry, excuse me. 22 million people. 22 million Canadians. We built 250,000 homes. Last year,
00:11:04.460 our population was 39 million people. And we built 219,000 homes. So with nearly double the population,
00:11:12.080 we're building fewer houses. And CMHC expects that we will build, this year, we're going to build 32%
00:11:18.120 fewer homes. Last month, True North's Lindsay Shepard reached out to Pierre Polyev's office to see if they
00:11:23.680 would offer up their own immigration targets so Canadians could know if there's any difference
00:11:27.940 between liberals and conservatives on the issue of mass immigration. Of course, Polyev's office
00:11:32.640 responded, but they refused to provide their own immigration targets. Instead, all they did was
00:11:38.160 point True North to the direction of a previous Pierre Polyev interview in which he says that he
00:11:43.100 will tie immigration figures to demand. And as Lindsay Shepard rightly points out, saying you're going
00:11:49.580 to tie immigration to demand doesn't at all mean you're willing to actually lower immigration. In
00:11:54.520 fact, it could just mean you're willing to raise immigration levels. From the way Polyev's statement
00:12:00.060 is worded, it sounds like he may prefer to scale up home building and healthcare worker hiring to keep
00:12:05.220 up with Trudeau's immigration levels, or perhaps even increase them. Since we haven't been afforded an
00:12:10.140 answer, we can only speculate. So what is actually going on here with Canada's conservative party?
00:12:15.220 Immigrants themselves, 63% of them, according to abacus data, think immigration targets are too
00:12:22.140 high. Canadians in poll after poll have shown that they think immigration is negatively impacting the
00:12:27.800 housing crisis. The demand for housing is way out of pace with supply, and the liberals keep
00:12:34.020 increasing immigration. The same thing, by the way, is happening in the United Kingdom. The fake
00:12:38.860 conservatives led by Rishi Sunak, who talk a big game on immigration, but instead have done absolutely
00:12:44.120 nothing to solve it, are losing voters to new right-wing parties willing to actually address
00:12:50.320 the issue. Tory fears mount over huge immigration driving voters to reform UK. Meanwhile, look no
00:12:57.160 further than what just happened in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders, a man who has committed his career
00:13:02.940 to stopping mass immigration and the Islamization of the Netherlands, has just won the Dutch elections
00:13:10.080 in a shock victory. He recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Ezra Levant of Rebel News.
00:13:16.280 And listen to what he says about the immigration question.
00:13:20.280 Other countries like Canada, the conservative party is pretty conservative and pretty freedom-oriented,
00:13:26.060 but it still has an open borders immigration policy. In the United Kingdom, the conservative party
00:13:32.440 open borders policy every day across the English Channel. What advice would you give to freedom-oriented
00:13:39.820 conservative parties who are obviously afraid of losing the vote of new immigrants? What advice
00:13:49.420 would you have for Canada or the United Kingdom?
00:13:51.020 Well, don't be afraid. First, don't be afraid. A lot of people will support you. Secondly, it's
00:13:56.900 a totally misconception that the immigrants would disagree, because maybe for some people, surprisingly,
00:14:04.160 the immigrants agree. Many of the immigrants agree. For in Holland, many of the immigrants,
00:14:08.640 even many Muslims, voted for my party, because they know that when there is too much influx of
00:14:14.640 immigration, that the integration and the success for them will only diminish. So they also are in
00:14:21.880 favor of less immigration. They know, they see what will happen with the housing, with the income,
00:14:27.640 with the jobs, or with everything. So surprisingly, it's not surprisingly, but surprisingly to many
00:14:32.400 people, they are often our allies. They don't want more immigrants to come as well.
00:14:38.020 Conservatives have to stop acting scared over the issue. Stop being afraid of being called a racist.
00:14:45.120 Immigrants will support you. Canadians will support you. But tackle the issue of the day
00:14:49.900 and stop being afraid. Listen to what he has to say here.
00:14:52.860 Despite having all the public data you could possibly want, showing you that it is a safe
00:14:58.440 and winning issue to talk about mass immigration, to be willing to lower these mass immigration
00:15:03.820 targets, for whatever reason, the Conservative Party of Canada, who love to bill themselves as
00:15:09.160 the common sense alternative to Justin Trudeau, just won't touch the issue. Do you find that
00:15:14.920 strange or is it just me? Let me know in the comments. My name is Harrison Faulkner and this
00:15:19.760 is Ratioed.
00:15:22.860 I love you.
00:15:23.940 I love you.