Is Canada Broken?

In a word, yes:

Most Canadians believe “everything is broken in the country right now,” and more people agree with that statement than just one year ago, according to a new national survey.

Canadians across political lines were on the same page when it came to the perception that Canada is broken, with 70 per cent agreeing with the statement. Most Conservative voters (85 per cent) backed the idea. Notably, two-thirds of NDP voters (66 per cent) agreed, in addition to 58 per cent of Bloc Québécois voters and a fair number of Liberal ones.

“Forty-three per cent of Liberal voters agreed the country feels broken these days. Obviously, that’s less than half of the percentage of Conservative voters, but that was slightly higher than I would have expected,” Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president at Leger, told National Post.

“It probably taps into a bit of frustration amongst even those strong Liberal voters who are still feeling a little frustrated and disappointed things aren’t going better for the country and, I guess, maybe even politically for their party.” ...

 

(Sidebar: who broke it, Liberal voters?) 

The deepening sense of national brokenness is led by a growing sense that “everything is expensive,” shortcomings of the public health-care system, and a sense that “my standard of living is declining.” Notably, topics such as tackling climate change and Canada’s standing on the international stage ranked at the bottom of respondents’ concerns.

The number of Canadians who think “everything is broken” increased three per cent since a similar Postmedia-Leger poll conducted one year ago.

 

Oh, speaking of healthcare: 

Canadian medicare is so bad people consider it frightening, say in-house research by the Department of Health. The national survey found Canadians were typically afraid they would never receive life-saving treatment when needed: ‘Participants have fears about access to services and delays in tests or treatment.’

 

 

This didn't simply happen over the past few years.

This is decades of leftist politics, untenable policies and public naivety at work.

And here we are.

 

 

Aside from the tattered social fabric, did anyone think where these migrants would live, work, go to school, or how they would sustain themselves?

Clearly not:

Last January, only 21 per cent of Canadians said there were too many immigrants in the country, according to a government survey. They were outnumbered by the 24 per cent of Canadians who believed there were too few newcomers to Canada.

“This concern about immigration has traction and certainly it constitutes a challenge to this consensus…. This suggests it’s a departure from what we’ve seen in the previous decade,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute.

The polling, done by Leger, comes at a time of widespread consternation over the effect high levels of immigration are having on housing costs. In 2022, Canada brought in around one million new temporary and permanent immigrants, boosting our population over 40 million. In November 2023, the Liberal government announced it would cap Canada’s annual immigrant intake at 500,000, starting in 2026.

Thirty-nine per cent of those who believe there is too much immigration in Canada believe immigrants are making the housing situation worse, while a further 21 per cent believe immigrants are “draining the system.”

**

When most Canadians talk about the country’s immigration system and the number of people coming here, we are told that Canada welcomes roughly half a million people each year. 

Most people, according to polls, believe that number is too high. Somewhere between half and three-quarters of all Canadians tell pollsters they would like the number to be lower. 

But the “half a million” figure that is often thrown around is wildly misleading. 

Canada welcomes 500,000 newcomers each year as permanent residents – the equivalence of U.S. green card holders.  

On top of that, we also admit another approximately 660,000 as temporary foreign workers, 900,000 international students and, in 2023, Canada saw an explosion of illegal immigration, with 143,870 people illegally entering the country and requesting political asylum. 

For context, during the Stephen Harper years, Canada dealt with 10,000 to 25,000 illegal migrants each year. Under Trudeau, that number has exploded tenfold. 

When you add these immigration streams together, the total number of annual newcomers arriving in Canada balloons to about 2.2 million people per year. 

No wonder our infrastructure is crumbling. No wonder housing shortages are so acute. No wonder there are viral videos showing dozens, if not hundreds, of migrants lining up for minimum wage job fairs in the service industry. 

Canada’s immigration system is being overrun and mismanaged. 

It’s hard to overstate how drastically out of step this is with Canada’s traditional approach to immigration.