[CliffFletcher]

Trudeau’s government ####ed up badly on housing and immigration. They’ll likely get swept out of power over it.

But the conspiracy theorists are out to lunch. Trudeau isn’t a party to some globalist scheme to subvert Canada to a nefarious socialist agenda. His government fell prey to what has become the default mode of governing in this country: easy-way-out-ism.

Worsening dependency ratio in an aging population putting a strain on the delivery of health care and pensions? We could have difficult conversations about taxes, retirement age, and reforming the health care system. Or we could just kick the can down the road by importing loads of working-age citizens to fatten the base of the demographic pyramid.

Universities struggle to keep tuition low because we’ve told everyone they need to go to university to have a decent life, but we cut post-secondary funding in favour of other spending priorities (mainly health care)? We could have difficult conversations about credentialism, taxes (again), or why universities still operate on the same model they did 120 years ago. Or we could just look the other way when universities massively ramp up international enrolment as a way to juice revenue.

Productivity and investment in the private sector lagging behind our peer countries? We could challenge Canadian businesses to up their game, while reforming the tangle of regulatory costs that undermine their efforts. Or we could just paper over their weakness by importing loads of low-skilled workers to keep costs down.

The Liberals couldn’t resist going full-throttle on immigration because it temporarily salves over several chronic issues that Canadian governments don’t have the stomach to grapple with. The problem is, it inflamed the uber-problem of housing affordability.

I do have some sympathy for them, though. Just look at what happened when they tried to mitigate their relentless spending increases with higher taxes on the wealthy. When people saw what the threshhold was, and that it would affect highly paid professionals like doctors, the response was ”No, not THOSE wealthy!”