Western Standard - Has Canada LOST CONTROL of immigration？

00:00:00.000 Canada is generally a pretty accepting country. Our respect for self-sovereignty and our belief

00:00:06.160 in one another and our incredible wealth and vastness of country make it a pretty good place

00:00:11.760 to come to. But the federal government seems to have opened the floodgates of immigration,

00:00:16.800 which has caused a new set of problems. Hi, I'm Natalie St. Hilaire and with me is Randy Royer

00:00:23.280 And this is a nation of people.

00:00:43.040 The federal government opened up immigration. What were the consequences? Why did they do it?

00:00:48.560 And what do we do now? How did this get so out of control?

00:00:53.280 Okay, Randy, so immigration, how does this fit in with our overall conversation? 0.97

00:00:59.120 Well, the first thing to remember is what we talked about in Episode 9, which is that Canada's uniqueness is based on its principle-based authority, principle-based society.

00:01:13.160 So, because it's principle-based, it is not based on race or ethnicity or background or what, you know,

00:01:23.680 the domination of one sex over the other.

00:01:25.880 Those things are not part of our core principles.

00:01:30.780 You know, they change over time.

00:01:32.140 And so, when we talk about immigration, it isn't about any of those things.

00:01:35.440 it's about how does immigration impact our unique most unique aspect which is that we're a principle

00:01:42.880 based society so then again if you need to go back to episode nine you can catch up on that part

00:01:51.120 so um the uh we have been relatively resilient because the 1982 constitution pushes us

00:01:58.240 to go towards the american concept of rules-based authority and rules-based

00:02:03.280 society but it has survived the question is can it survive heavy immigration uh and the problem

00:02:11.360 there is that the new in the two-fold problem first is that the immigrants that come in

00:02:18.400 have a certain requirements but they don't understand how the country actually works and 1.00

00:02:22.800 that's the first problem second problem is we as canadians we just do it we don't talk about it we

00:02:27.680 We don't trumpet it, we just do it.

00:02:29.820 And so we don't actually have the words

00:02:31.900 to define why our cultural philosophy

00:02:35.380 is different from what the immigrants came from. 1.00

00:02:41.380 So that's one of my concerns about immigration. 0.84

00:02:46.840 But most importantly, it's not a race-based culture at all.

00:02:51.420 It's principle-based.

00:02:53.640 Okay, well, I think that we should get into the numbers,

00:02:56.360 the immigration situation at hand, and a little bit of the history around it, and then talk a

00:03:01.060 little bit more about what you're saying about being a principle-based culture. But before we

00:03:06.300 do that, I think it's worth acknowledging something many Canadians have already been

00:03:09.880 experiencing firsthand. And for years, we've heard reports about immigration levels, how rapidly

00:03:16.060 they've increased, and the pressures they may be placing on housing, healthcare, schools, and public

00:03:21.460 services but statistics really do only tell part of the story i've spoken with teachers parents

00:03:27.300 and community leaders across alberta and one concern that comes up again and again is that

00:03:32.660 classrooms are becoming increasingly difficult to manage because many students are still learning

00:03:37.540 english while teachers are expected to meet the needs of every child in the room it's a challenge

00:03:42.580 that affects everyone involved not just the newcomers but teachers parents and students

00:03:47.060 alike. There are stories emerged that raise quite an even more difficult question. Just

00:03:53.760 yesterday, Global News reported that the son of a former Iranian vice president received

00:03:59.260 more than $2 million in federal and provincial government contracts, including work from

00:04:05.300 the RCMP and the Department of National Defense, despite reportedly being under investigation

00:04:10.380 over alleged participation in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That's an extraordinary

00:04:16.600 story, and it isn't the first time Canadians have been left asking how government screening

00:04:21.480 and oversight failed, nor many fear will it be the last. It's one reason immigration has become 1.00

00:04:28.240 such a dominant political issue in Alberta, and why several of the questions in the upcoming

00:04:32.860 provincial referendum focus on the consequences of rapid population growth and immigration policy.

00:04:40.260 The Alberta government has argued that the current temporary foreign worker system

00:04:44.380 places significant fiscal pressure on provincial services,

00:04:48.200 claiming that the cost of public services substantially exceeds the tax revenue

00:04:52.440 generated by many temporary workers.

00:04:55.480 And whether you agree with those conclusions or not,

00:04:57.520 the debate has reached a point where opinions alone aren't enough.

00:05:00.580 The numbers, therefore, do deserve a closer look.

00:05:04.240 Coincidentally, this week, the Aristotle Foundation released

00:05:07.420 one of the most comprehensive reviews of Canadian immigration in recent years.

00:05:11.380 It provides valuable historical context.

00:05:14.380 and the data reveals a remarkable transformation.

00:05:18.260 Canada has always been a nation shaped by immigration.

00:05:21.300 The first great wave followed Confederation

00:05:23.360 and was largely focused on settling Western Canada, as we've discussed,

00:05:28.280 and that period continued until about the First World War.

00:05:32.880 During those years, immigration reached extraordinary levels.

00:05:36.160 In 1913 alone, more than 400,000 immigrants arrived in a country

00:05:40.960 with a population, our country, of just 7.6 million, almost 6% of the entire population

00:05:47.480 in a single year. The first Immigration Act had been introduced in 1906, but as immigration

00:05:53.840 accelerated, public debate intensified. Canadians were increasingly concerned about crime,

00:05:59.400 integration, and whether newcomers shared the country's institutions and values.

00:06:04.540 Immigration slowed dramatically during the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second

00:06:08.920 World War before entering a second major era during the post-war expansion. A significant

00:06:15.480 turning point came in 1976 when Canada fundamentally restructured its immigration system. Rather than

00:06:21.880 a single pathway, the country established four principal categories, independent immigrants,

00:06:27.560 family reunification, assisted relatives, and humanitarian refugees. That system has

00:06:34.360 continue to expand. Today, Canada operates more than 17 different immigration streams,

00:06:41.160 and the scale of admissions has reached levels never before seen in Canadian history.

00:06:45.960 Annual permanent immigration remained relatively stable at about 250,000 people for many years,

00:06:52.680 but in 2023, Canada nearly doubled that pace, welcoming approximately half a million permanent

00:06:57.880 residents in a single year. Yet permanent immigration is only part of the picture.

00:07:02.280 Perhaps the most significant story lies in Canada's temporary resident programs, including

00:07:07.820 temporary foreign workers, international students, and temporary residents.

00:07:12.520 The rapid expansion of these programs has created a level of administrative complexity

00:07:17.460 that many observers argue the system is struggling to manage.

00:07:21.000 Millions of temporary visas are expected to reach expiry over the coming years, creating

00:07:26.100 enormous pressure on immigration processing, appeals, and enforcement.

00:07:30.920 to reporting by Blacklock's reporter, Canada's federal court, which was designed to handle

00:07:36.600 approximately 5,000 immigration cases annually, is now receiving approximately 30,000 cases

00:07:43.160 a year. That's a six-fold increase that has placed an unprecedented strain on our judicial

00:07:49.840 system. And that's just some of the numbers, Randy, that we're looking at when we start

00:07:53.780 to talk about immigration so why did we do it a great question um the first of all the federal

00:08:02.340 government opened up the gates uh because canada has the same problem a demographic problem that's

00:08:08.100 it's it's basically every uh developed country has it except for the united states and so if

00:08:13.300 you know the what the demographic curves look like they they're typically uh thin at the top

00:08:19.860 and then they bulge out and and uh and the young outnumber the old and when you have that kind of

00:08:25.540 a curve the young people are at the bottom of the curve and then it goes up to you know octogenarians

00:08:31.300 at the top uh and if the if there's more young people coming into the into the population base

00:08:37.620 they can support the old people um what's happened in places like japan it's critical

00:08:42.900 that the the the bulge is reversed that the there's more old people than there are young people

00:08:48.980 so canada faced the same problem that we have you know the baby boomers are retiring uh they're not

00:08:54.180 they're leaving the workforce and uh and they're look they're going to be real they are relying on

00:08:59.460 on social security and things like that so uh that when the bulge is is uh wider at the top even

00:09:06.740 wider at the high end and sort of the 50 age group and then slim at the bottom that means the whole

00:09:12.500 thing teeters over and falls on its side and so um every country has been scratching their head

00:09:18.820 to decide what to do about it and the u.s is different because um i think largely because

00:09:27.700 the american women are having babies whereas other parts of the world they're having less

00:09:32.580 babies i think the the average of uh birth is over two in the u.s and in the other parts of

00:09:38.820 the world it's 1.2 so it's significantly different and there's also u.s immigration into the u.s which

00:09:45.460 is of course that's changing a little bit now but it historically has had you know a lot of young

00:09:49.880 people so what can't what the federal government decided to do was it decided all at once to solve

00:09:56.400 this problem and just let a whole group of people between the age of 15 and 30 come into the country

00:10:01.800 and change the demographic bulge okay demographics we did it for demographics but why did we do it

00:10:09.160 during covid well that's a really good question um the only answer that i could come up with is

00:10:15.080 that they did it undercover when everybody else was like it's counterintuitive you know if if 0.96

00:10:20.000 you're locking everybody down why on earth would you let a whole bunch of immigrants into the 0.99

00:10:25.200 country when you're locking everyone down so the only conclusion that one can reach is they did it 1.00

00:10:30.840 because they were undercover.

00:10:32.380 The population was busy worrying about COVID

00:10:34.660 and they said, well, okay, this is something we can do,

00:10:37.060 get away with it and nobody will pay any attention.

00:10:39.100 So that, I mean, politically,

00:10:40.320 that's the only thing I can think of.

00:10:42.660 Well, your guess is as good as mine,

00:10:44.360 but as far as demographics go

00:10:47.840 and as far as immigrating people

00:10:49.200 in order to solve a demographic problem,

00:10:51.460 is that just the Trudeau government taking the easy way out?

00:10:54.760 Absolutely.

00:10:55.600 the uh instead of you know instead of protecting our society they did they just took the easy way

00:11:02.960 out and i would argue that we've seen that not just the trudeau government but the canadian

00:11:07.600 government in general uh you know by constitution by folding our economy into that with the united

00:11:13.920 states we have continually taken the easy way out by underfunding our military they've taken

00:11:20.160 the easy way out and i think that there's two pieces here one is that was the easy easy answer

00:11:26.320 um and uh and and the other piece of it is that uh it's political action because when immigrants

00:11:34.480 come in and my father-in-law is a really good example he was let in by the liberal government

00:11:38.880 and he was an ardent liberal voter for years and so immigrants typically vote for the party that

00:11:45.360 lets them in and so i think there's a little bit of a political bent to it also well i mean the

00:11:50.640 consequences are you know drastic at this at this point um we're holding a referendum a number of

00:11:56.800 those questions circle around immigration um you know we talked i just spoke about a number of

00:12:02.720 different issues directly related to immigration so i mean if we get kind of underneath the

00:12:10.400 situational context trudeau etc why did this happen well um the biggest problem in our immigration

00:12:21.040 system in my view is that the federal government has the response has the authority to let people

00:12:26.320 into the country but once they're in the country it doesn't take any responsibility the responsibility

00:12:31.600 is with the provincial governments so our hate to say it again but our constitutional structure 0.99

00:12:37.280 is just flat out stupid and this idea that they work together just it doesn't it doesn't work 0.98

00:12:43.440 and so they let a lot of people in and just said okay provinces you got to deal with it 1.00

00:12:48.080 and uh and and so that that's the basic problem is that the federal government opened up the doors

00:12:54.880 and the provincial government said what what's going on and that and hence that's the reason

00:12:59.440 for some of the questions that are being asked in the uh in the in the referendum so ultimately how

00:13:05.520 are we going to fix that well um the first step is that again it goes back to break the egg

00:13:15.120 let's get rid of the 1982 constitution let's have a citizens assembly we can allocate

00:13:21.040 the authority and responsibility to the same place or we can allocate as in this case

00:13:27.120 the provinces need to have the responsibility and the authority to say yes and then the federal

00:13:32.720 government actually does the work to let people in but they should not be letting people into the

00:13:37.280 country that don't have a place to stay because you know the federal government of course doesn't

00:13:41.760 have any land it's all under provincial jurisdiction and territorial jurisdiction

00:13:46.960 so when they come in each province needs to say this is how many people we can handle

00:13:52.560 and uh and then say to the federal government you can let that many people in here's our kind

00:13:57.520 of requirements these are the kind of people that we want we want engineers we want businessmen you

00:14:01.200 You know, whatever that, nurses, you know, whatever that case may be, the province should be working hand in hand.

00:14:07.580 And the thing is, is that collaborative confederation doesn't work, but we need, if we're going to have a constitution, we need to enshrine it in the constitution and demand that both the federal and provincial governments adhere to that.

00:14:20.940 So you'd be a fan of changing the constitution to give the provinces more say and sovereignty over the amount of immigration that we experience?

00:14:29.720 Well, I mean, having the authority, I mean, this is like, you know, business class 101.

00:14:34.520 You know, if you run a company, you have to have the authority and the responsibility in the same spot. 0.97

00:14:39.380 And the fact that we don't do that as a nation is, I called it stupid earlier, and I'm going to double down on that word. 1.00

00:14:44.920 It's just stupid. 1.00

00:14:45.880 Yeah. 1.00

00:14:46.120 And, you know, and they did, in 1867, they didn't think about it.

00:14:50.260 In 1982, well, they were occupied with other things.

00:14:53.700 And the problem is, is this is not a problem that can, an issue that can be solved by politicians, because when you get them in the room, they got their bureaucrats behind them that are saying, don't give up my power, and they all are standing their ground, and they don't want to give up any of their own authority or take on responsibilities.

00:15:12.660 They don't want a population to demand that they are responsible.

00:15:18.840 And so they're all jockeying from a personal perspective.

00:15:21.740 So the only way to do this is for the people to say,

00:15:25.620 to politicians, this is above your pay grade.

00:15:28.780 Thank you for coming out.

00:15:30.120 But this is the way we have to do it.

00:15:32.380 Okay.

00:15:32.720 Well, getting back to the impact to the province,

00:15:37.640 what percentage of immigration has ended up in Alberta recently?

00:15:42.660 Well, we're about 14.5%.

00:15:45.040 So our population is about 11% of the entire country.

00:15:48.780 So we're kind of hitting above our pay grade, hitting above our numbers.

00:15:53.900 And so we're taking in a little bit more than our population would otherwise have us.

00:16:01.540 But this is really a big issue in Ontario.

00:16:06.540 Ontario gets between 45% and 60%. 0.98

00:16:09.260 60% of the new immigrants.

00:16:11.260 and most of those immigrants pile into toronto and so if anybody's been to toronto lately i mean

00:16:18.440 it's uh you know it it's where immigrants go because that's where their families already are

00:16:23.520 and we're and in you know toronto is a great city and it's always been because you had the you know

00:16:27.660 the portuguese neighborhood and the italian neighborhood and the and the you know greek

00:16:31.680 neighborhood and and so it has always been ethnically diversified and that's on steroids

00:16:37.580 now um you know there's 280 different ethnic groups in toronto 180 different languages toronto

00:16:46.220 is actually the most ethnically diverse city in the world so when it says that it's kind of the

00:16:52.140 center of the universe well it kind of is the center of the universe it's got more people from

00:16:57.260 all over the world than any other city in the world so immigration is very much that's an

00:17:01.820 interesting way to look at okay and then you know in terms of the questions on the referendum

00:17:07.580 Yeah. Here in Alberta. You know, what what are we really saying about the issues that we're encountering because of mass immigration? And what are your thoughts there, Randy?

00:17:18.920 So the first one is basically, and it's the first question on the referendum,

00:17:22.300 is about Alberta taking more control of the immigration process.

00:17:26.380 And I would argue that our constitutional structure is flawed.

00:17:32.220 It can't just be a, I guess I've already argued that,

00:17:35.560 you can't, the province already has the responsibility

00:17:39.360 and the federal government has the authority.

00:17:41.940 That doesn't work. It just doesn't.

00:17:43.360 So this is an attempt to straighten that out.

00:17:45.680 Yeah. And so the second question is all about limiting services to people that are temporary. So they're not even permanent residents. And I believe there's 17 different categories at the federal level. So that's one of the things that makes counting the ultimate numbers of immigration into the country so difficult because of all of these different tracks.

00:18:11.080 And one of the tracks is when people move from temporary to permanent.

00:18:14.880 But during the time period where they're simply temporary foreign workers or where they're attending school,

00:18:20.740 the question is, do we want to limit the government services to the people that essentially,

00:18:27.420 well, like the numbers from the province stated, might be bringing in kind of like $1 of tax revenue,

00:18:32.820 but costing us $10 in services.

00:18:35.540 Right.

00:18:35.760 So that's the next question, a little bit more specific.

00:18:38.100 The third one is a 12-month residency requirement before qualifying.

00:18:44.220 And so what they're basically addressing is that if you move from Ontario to Alberta,

00:18:50.060 you've got to be in Alberta 12 months before you register.

00:18:53.320 And again, this is just about trying to get a handle on the immigration and trying.

00:18:59.300 I understand that the government is trying to do a good job and they have a responsibility to all citizens.

00:19:07.760 so you know this this is an area that has kind of been uh has expanded their scope of what they have

00:19:14.160 to provide services so this is trying to get a handle on it and trying to control it yeah into

00:19:19.280 that you know with a health care system that people are constantly um you know complaining

00:19:24.800 about but noted for reason about wait times etc about being um you know behind already adding more

00:19:32.880 600 000 newcomers to that system has definitely caused us more issues it has to have um and so

00:19:40.160 that's but being the good canadians that we are we want to make sure everyone has access to services

00:19:46.160 and since we don't already have some sort of like private um well-defined health care etc we

00:19:53.280 we're asking in the fourth question if we can charge a fee for those people that don't qualify

00:19:58.800 but that they could still access services government services for a fee that sounds

00:20:03.760 like it's in our principles that we adhere to uh the fifth one is probably the only one that i

00:20:08.800 actually disagree with and um and that that basically requires everybody to show their

00:20:14.640 qualification when they when they vote and um and this to me is a case i'll give you another example

00:20:21.600 somebody goes out and shoots a bunch of people in the in montreal university and so everybody has

00:20:27.280 to surrender their firearms so we're punishing everybody because of a few and uh and i just

00:20:35.920 intrinsically don't think that that's what governments should do and i don't think that's

00:20:39.280 what we should do interesting i don't see it as a punishment at all i i'm on the other side i think

00:20:43.920 that people should have to be citizens to vote and because they're that it's sort of the same thing

00:20:49.520 is like where the authority is is where the responsibility is that's so if you don't have

00:20:54.640 a citizenship you don't have the same level of responsibility you know but how do you view on

00:21:00.720 how people should address each of the five yeah well i think the most important thing and one of

00:21:05.920 the things that we're we're doing with this series is just seeking to educate people so that they can

00:21:11.280 make their own decisions like i'm not about to actually tell people how to vote on anything

00:21:16.720 that's i i think that though that it's on all of us to look at things like statistics and to really

00:21:23.920 understand these questions before we go and make a decision and just like you and i disagree on on

00:21:30.160 things you know i'm sure that i would have disagreements and agreements with many people

00:21:34.640 out there but um i definitely think though that we have immigrated too many people too quickly

00:21:39.840 and that our systems are struggling to keep up i think that's pretty clear both anecdotally and 0.98

00:21:44.960 in the numbers so i do think we need to do something to address it band-aid or not

00:21:49.600 yeah yeah but i i i want to take us back to episode nine that i think that the thing that

00:21:54.800 is most at risk for us is that we're bringing in a lot of new people that you know it typically

00:22:00.800 takes five years to assimilate into a new culture and when we bring in a bigger number than we can 0.98

00:22:07.360 handle um you know it puts pressure on our basic cultural uh society and and i want to you know

00:22:15.120 highlight that we're you know we're a principled based uh country though it takes some effort to

00:22:22.560 get new people that come into this country that come from somewhere that have different ways of

00:22:27.360 doing things to get them to understand that we're principle based we're about self-governance

00:22:32.320 your self-governance we expect you to use your best judgment and uh and and we don't have you

00:22:38.480 know like the americans we don't have a strict law enforcement uh you know we're so it's hard for us

00:22:44.960 to get those ideas across and i'm worried that we're going to get diluted in the last episode

00:22:50.080 we said that you know canadians believe that our our fellow citizens are morally good uh that number

00:22:58.640 is 91 of canadians believe that you know do we are we risking that number going down yeah well

00:23:07.200 i think without um you know rigid structures ensuring people follow the law and in the sort

00:23:12.720 of structure that you've described where we have a principle-based self-governing

00:23:18.400 sort of sense of morality we need institutions if we're going to immigrate people to

00:23:25.280 explain that to them to teach that to them and to help them understand the expectations of our

00:23:30.080 culture and why it is that our culture works exactly this is fundamental to our prosperity

00:23:35.600 is actually our integrity well and both kinds of prosperity both you know economic prosperity

00:23:40.800 but also social prosperity you know canadians like being canadians albertans like being albertans

00:23:46.960 and and uh so that's actually we kind of said well what what structure should we drive towards

00:23:53.120 and so i think that there's three pieces of it one is the federal piece uh the other is the

00:23:58.240 provincial piece as we talked about the other piece is and it goes back to our underlying

00:24:03.760 philosophy in this thing that democracy is not a spectator sport i'm saying that the people have a

00:24:09.440 role to play so one of the proposals that i want to introduce into this constitutional structure

00:24:14.800 is creating various guilds and that those would be guilds of people across the country and and

00:24:20.720 one of those guilds would be about immigration to support new immigrants so they you know that when

00:24:26.800 someone comes in they register with provincial government they register also with a guild and

00:24:31.760 the guild sends out people that will introduce them to calgary for example they'll teach them

00:24:38.080 our local norms, like you hold the door open for the person behind you. When you get into a queue

00:24:45.480 of people going through a door, you let the other person go ahead first. We need local citizens to

00:24:52.900 tell the new arrivals that these are the things that you do in Calgary, and this is why you do

00:24:59.740 them. So again, this is not something that we should just push off into the federal government

00:25:05.620 or the provincial government and say you guys are doing a bad job we actually need to step up also

00:25:10.260 and so that and so i'm going to be promoting this idea of an immigration guilt oh interesting randy

00:25:15.700 so i i love the consistency there with really you know us being responsible for our own democracy in

00:25:21.700 our own society um and it's you know not a bad idea i look forward to hearing more but i mean

00:25:26.980 ultimately um you know we do have i was taught in school right that canada is a melting pot or

00:25:34.100 uh mosaic sorry i always get those words confused mosaic and so we didn't we were taught specifically

00:25:41.300 that canada doesn't assimilate and the united states does assimilate so can you say a little

00:25:46.820 bit more about about you know the need i mean i think what you're saying is there is a little bit

00:25:52.580 more of a need to assimilate people to our views or our principles um the answer is is yes and um

00:26:03.460 and what it portrays is that canadians don't really know who we are you know because we're

00:26:09.300 not promotional we don't put words around our strengths and as much as culturally we're quite

00:26:17.540 happy if people follow their culture from the you know from their homeland but in terms of how we

00:26:25.540 run society which is this principle-based approach that's on that's not optional that's how we do

00:26:32.660 things there's no room for moving there this is how we do things and if you can't get your head

00:26:37.700 around that then you're diminishing our canadian our the this the single thing that holds us

00:26:44.660 together as canadians differentiates us from the united states and makes us one of the most popular

00:26:50.180 countries in the world canada and switzerland are actually rated as the number one together number

00:26:55.460 one most popular countries in the world and we're most we're popular because of that principle so is

00:27:02.180 is that assimilation when you say you can do all the other stuff the you know the superficial stuff

00:27:07.780 that's great you can do that but you need to understand that we as a country we base we have

00:27:14.340 to conduct ourselves with the principles and those principles are in common and they're very human

00:27:18.980 based principles they're not uh you know and so they this is this assimilation absolutely but

00:27:26.660 it's assimilation in the one thing that we actually share across the country interesting

00:27:31.540 and so you think that these guilds could could do that work could help to educate and to assimilate

00:27:38.980 people into these principled views yeah and give them i mean it is a bit of there's a bit of a

00:27:43.460 history and and uh you know for example uh you know immigrants that come in do they understand 0.58

00:27:48.980 that we are here because of treaties do they understand that they have just come to this 0.99

00:27:52.900 to this province this country because of treaties do they understand what that means do they

00:27:57.540 understand the responsibility of those treaties so um you know we haven't i think we have an

00:28:02.900 obligation to all of them to all of the new immigrants and ourselves to understand who we are

00:28:09.940 why we're different and how and how we're going to be in the future and if we don't 0.80

00:28:14.580 if we don't do that we're going to lose something very precious ourselves what do we do with the

00:28:21.220 situation we're in right now because um we are in you know we do have a situation to contend with

00:28:27.860 vis-a-vis immigration well uh it's i mean that's a very hard one and the first one is is that the 0.58

00:28:35.060 sooner we can get these citizen guilds going the better off we're going to be because they have to

00:28:40.580 be integrated you talked about school school the classroom and the problem is i as i envisage it

00:28:48.180 is that there are students from all over the world and they don't understand

00:28:51.940 our basic principles of you know principle-based uh society so somebody needs to get into them and

00:28:58.740 into those rooms and tell them what this is the way we conduct ourselves in canada

00:29:06.740 we made a mistake in adopting a u.s style constitution we made a mistake surrendering

00:29:11.540 our economy to the u.s has immigration been another mistake have we put our principle-based

00:29:17.140 society at risk of being diluted? Have we put the one remaining unique aspect of Canadian culture 0.55

00:29:22.660 into jeopardy? Has the political class lost our confidence? Or has the time just come for citizen

00:29:28.820 engagement? We need a new constitutional structure that allocates responsibilities and authorities

00:29:34.340 logically. We need an army of citizens to transition newcomers and to promote our norms

00:29:40.100 and responsibilities. But all of these questions and more need to be understood in the context of

00:29:45.460 the big trends in history. Looking at where we are, where we came from, and where we are going

00:29:50.820 with a big picture perspective is the topic of the next episode of A Nation of People. Join us.

Western Standard - September 18, 2026

Has Canada LOST CONTROL of immigration？

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