Tuesday, September 02, 2025

Today's News: Our peaceful time is over

The peace and quiet was great while it lasted.

Canada has been enjoying a mostly-Poilievre-free summer. 
But its over now. 
Already we're getting inarticulate and inaccurate Poilievre blasts about how awful Canada is. 
And already our media are trying to turn back the mis-information tide with articles like this one: 
Campbell Clark / The Globe and Mail (gift link)
There is no flood of newcomers anymore, Mr. Poilievre
...Now net immigration is pretty much zero.
...The statement issued by Mr. Poilievre last week blasted the government for supposedly blowing through the 2025 targets for new arrivals of temporary workers only halfway through the year. It was repeated by the National Citizens Coalition lobby group and picked up by some pundits who chimed in. But they misinterpreted the statistics
Mr. Poilievre’s statement said that 105,000 new temporary foreign workers had come in the first half of 2025, when the government had set a target of 82,000 new arrivals. But the 105,000 figure included work-permit renewals. Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship Canada reported there were 33,722 new arrivals.
Similarly, the Conservatives charged that the 302,000 work permits issued from January to June under the separate International Mobility Program exceed the target of 285,000. But again, many of the permits were renewals, and in this case, postgraduate work permits. According to IRCC, there were 85,512 new arrivals to Canada under IMP.
Postgraduate work permits and extensions are important if you want to understand what’s going on in Canada’s immigration system right now.
The big surge of temporary residents earlier in the decade came when Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals failed to realize colleges were recruiting vast numbers of international students. Many came with a guarantee that when they graduated they would get a three-year work permit. So international students who arrived in 2023 might be eligible for work permits through 2028 or 2030.
Now Ottawa has embarked on a process of reducing the numbers of temporary residents. One part is reducing new arrivals. The IRCC reports there were 214,000 fewer new arrivals of temporary workers and international students in the first half of 2025 than in the same period the year before.
But another part is an effort to turn temporary residents into permanent residents. Many of the 395,000 people to get permanent resident status in 2025 were already here.
In total, the immigration plan calls for slightly more people to leave in 2025 than arrive. Already, population growth in the first quarter of 2025, according to Statistics Canada, was 0.0 per cent.
The Liberals certainly deserve mountains of blame for the failures of 2021 to 2024, but Mr. Poilievre has no business pretending the number of immigrants is still going up.
... there is no flood of newcomers. Rapid population growth has stopped. There are other things to fix.
I find all of these numbers to be mind-numbing detail, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to deal with the Poilievre Three-Word Slogan approach to politics. Basically, all of these articles should just start with "Poilievre. Is. Wrong. Again." 
Then last week he was blasting about how Canada needs "Stand Your Ground" laws. Well, we already have such laws, passed when Harper was Prime Minister and Poilievre was a member of his cabinet. Maybe he missed it because he was talking at the time.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic... This headline should read ‘Poilievre wants to enact American stand your ground laws’ You know, the ones where a white guy shoots through his front door & kills a black kid looking for directions & doesn’t get charged. Also called the ‘Shoot first law’ Despicable. #NeverPP

[image or embed]

— πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ Proud Canadian πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ (@beppil007.bsky.social) August 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM
View on Threads
And for Gawds sake, apparently he's trying another "image makeover":

Poilievre does an image makeover to win over women voters

[image or embed]

— That guy (@stuartbayens.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Here is an interesting point:

When Parliament resumes in two weeks, the media are talking about how difficult it will be for Carney to deal with Poilievre because he is just so experienced in the politics of the house.
I think we're all in for a pleasant surprise.

Our sycophantic mainstream media, cheerleaders for the right, are singing the praises of Whats-his-name from the rooftops. ‘It will be a challenge for the PM’: NOT! Carney has a very sharp wit. Poilievre is going into battle half-armed. www.ctvnews.ca/video/2025/0...

[image or embed]

— Bella (@kristinajensen.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 4:38 PM


Meanwhile, in Washington...
 
View on Threads

Since last Wednesday, America hasn't heard Trump's voice. They have seen only a few blurry photos of Trump behind a crowd of Secret Service agents, limping to his golf cart on Saturday. 
His office got MAGA influencers to promote a few photos that supposedly showed Trump looking cheerful on a golf course - but these were quickly identified by the internet as fraudulent. It was just bizarre:

Incompetent staff work is a hallmark of Trump administrations. That and the confidence that the White House press will never call them on it.

— Cathie from Canada🍁 (@cathiecanada.bsky.socialSeptember 1, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Now Trump is supposed to have a press conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday - maybe to explain what he was throwing out of the Lincoln Bedroom window this afternoon? Or maybe to tell the United States they are building Mar-A-Gaza? Or maybe they will be going to war with Chicago or Mexico or Venezuela?
Or, hey, maybe he'll resign due to ill health?  We can always dream. 
This pretty well sums it up:
View on Threads

Yeah, right.

Onward and upward... 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We learned that Poilievre has pretty strong views on the occupant intruder dynamic. I hope he would agree that a home occupant may have gone a bit too far when he shot a kid playing ring the bell and run, shot him dead in the back. On the other hand, maybe Poilievre wouldn’t have a really clear position. Maybe it depends on a close examination of the circumstances. J.W.