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| 2026-02-11 | 3 |
As a Canada who speaks both French and English and who follows politics quite closely, I have to say that the headline and some of the reporting here is quite misleading.
A reduction in immigration has broad support across Canada. I wouldn't say that notion is dividing the country in any significant way.
You do have certain industry groups that disagree, but among the population these reductions have broad support.
This is a historic change in public opinion in Canada, but it has been driven by the unprecedented increase in immigration under the last term of the Trudeau government. To put this in context, non-permanent residents in Canada numbered around 1.5 million on Q3 2023, but by Q3 2025, that number sat a just over 3 million. The previous government increased immigration targets by 3 or 4 times over what they had been for years, which caused a number of economic issues. Essentially, the volume was simply too high for the economy and society to support. This was unfair to both Canadians and new comers, many of which could not find employment or afford a decent place to live.
The changes being suggested are largely bringing Canada back to what the targets were for over a decade before, though a bit lower to account for the sudden surge. Canada remains one of the most pro-immigration countries in the world.
However, and this is where I think DW's reporting is misleading, there is a distinction to be made between policies at the federal level and policies at the provincial level.
Immigration, per our constitution, is a federal matter, however, Quebec in particular is distinct from other provinces. I don't mean only culturally and linguistically, but also in the powers that have been devolved to it by the federal government.
On the question of immigration, Quebec has more powers and more ability to set its immigration targets and programs than any of the other 9 provinces.
The particular program discussed here, the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), is a particular immigration stream that only existed in Quebec. So what is happening with that program cannot be labeled as a whole-of-Canada thing.
Where the changes to the PEQ are controversial, unlike the general changes at the federal level, is that people who immigrated under that specific program were promised certain things. There was a multi-year time line to Permanent Residency and then Citizenship. Many of those people have been in Quebec for 5-8 years already. However, the changes made to the program were done in such a way where people who many years into the program, had gotten an education, started a career, had children, ect. are now being told they can't continue and must leave Canada.
There are even stories of people who married Canadians, now have children, and the one parent who was under this program now faces the possibility of having to leave Canada and be separated from their family. All through no fault of their own.
That is what many people see as unfair, and I agree, however limiting future applications under the program, to bring in less people, that is not controversial.
Canada has no responsibility to bring in people who are not already in Canada, but Canada does have some responsibility towards people who uprooted their lives to move to Canada and built new lives here based on promises and representations made to them by the Canadian and Quebecois governments. We should no simply kick those people out of the country.
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| 2026-01-27 | 0 |
French Canadian from Quebec here, this country is rotting. Salute to all my fellows from Ontario, it's a shame and also very worrying to watch "GTA5" driving skill in RL.
Props Tyler, TY bud putting the spotlight on the matter. Merci beaucoups, sincerement.
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| 2025-03-04 | 0 |
As a Canadian who lives in (largely French-speaking) Quebec, I don't know if our gov't even NEEDS to tariff American consumer goods, the people here are already boycotting US goods and companies en masse. EVERYBODY is doing it - and the pace isn't going to recede anytime soon. Even after the Orange Turd is long gone, trust me, Canadians will remember this! The American state has proven it cannot be trusted. They have unilaterally broken the trade agreement (negotiated by the previous Donald J Chump administration) on the flimsiest of reasons, the 00.2 % of fentanyl that flows over the border into the US from Canada. That deal now obviously not worth the paper it was signed on.
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| 2025-01-05 | 0 |
I was born in Canada and my family was from the Caribbean and were brown. Learned Canadian history from our first PM John a McDonald, Wilfred Laurier, learned French. We were hoping Quebec did not separate from Canada. Our whole family is loyal to one country and that is Canada only. The small minority of Indians have destroyed what made us Canada. Playing Punjabi music downtown at Yonge Dundas that never happened. These punjabis are deliberately travelling from Brampton to dance at Yonge Dundas to shove their music in our face. Even my Indian friends who were born here want all Indian immigrants gone they are pissed off. Deport the low skill Indian immigrants and the ones who defrauded the system, the slumlords who exchange rent for sex and the human trafficking.
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| 2024-09-07 | 0 |
I accept your message as a positive effort, but take exception that you are ambassadors for India. That is my main concern: many immigrants are not just keeping their old culture but forcing it on native Canadians of all descent. \nFor refugees, it absolutely boggles my mind why you might want to recreate the very situations that you are fleeing from. \nFor Indians specifically, I’ve noticed a tendency to hire only other Indians, excluding Canada from Canadians and I don’t appreciate it. After all, Canada welcomed you. \n\nI think many Canadians had no issue with any culture of nationality. Growing up here, I never saw any hatred or racism, despite what that idiot Trudeau says. In the last 10+ years that’s changed, and the resentment is growing exponentially now. We have been accepting of all other cultures, even when they directly conflict with our own and that tolerance and respect has not been reciprocated and many cases. This leads to resentment. \n\nIt’s not whites resenting Indians or muslims or whatever, it’s Canadians resenting those who disrespect Canada and Canadians! Canadians of Indian descent resent this. Naturalized citizens that truly identify as Canadian resent this. My father and my wife were both born elsewhere and feel this way.\n\nDespite growing up in Canada, I do not speak French. When I go to Quebec, try to speak the language, but I’m pretty bad at it. French-Canadians appreciate the effort even though I’m butchering their language. it’s a show of respect.
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| 2024-08-15 | 0 |
Gosh I've been in Canada for 14 years. Trying to do everything by the book when it comes to immigration. Came here as a student, graduated from engineering 8 years ago and now working in the aerospace sector. I can't even become a Canadian citizen until Quebec lets me to do so, and I got big dreams such as flying for the military here. Am I supposed to be also one of the people who is supposed to leave despite paying a big portion of my life to be here and become one of y'all Canucks.....\n\nDon't know if it helps, but I speak French as well
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| 2024-04-12 | 0 |
Hey I’m Canadian and I feel bad new comers coming here looking to realize a better life when the reality of that matter the things they can access and freedoms they can have will be limited. There’s a serious medical access and to find a family doctor or wait 12 hours at the hospital. Also when people are professionals like engineers or doctors they have to start from scratch that’s amazing how many doctors or other high level professionals I met as a waiter, taxi driver, working min wage in a store…Oh boy the insane proportions of the housing is ridiculous to say the least. There’s people with 9-5 making 50k at the food banks, now low income people make less wayyy less. So I think they are even turning away international students. It’s quite unfortunate and not realistic. I live in Montreal. You know to know french here Quebec french. Well the increase in crime is because people are getting desperate and are in poverty and desperate. What n unfortunate situation.
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| 2024-04-11 | 0 |
Even tho most Canadians in the earlier years were mostly white, it was multicultural because they all came from many other countries and cultures. They still held on to their traditions but yet also formed a Canadian culture.\nTheir was a huge population of Chinese people too. They stuck together in large areas, many didn't speak english. Similar to Quebec maybe. They mostly spoke french and I remember a time when they didn't really like english speaking whites around. Seems like the premier would like it to stay that way. Protecting the culture. \nIn the 80's on the west coast I watched thousands of Sikh's and Punjabi's and similar move into large areas and take over many jobs in large companies. Lumber mills, rail yards, papermills and so on. I went to one job interview and outside the office window was a whole shift of people wearing turbans. Must have been 50 to a 100 of them. 3 years earlier when I toured that place in grade 12, it was all white people. What happened? That was around the time of the recession and jobs were getting scarce. The only people in line for job interviews were white people and the interviewers would not accept anyone without grade 12 and previous experience. Here is what I overheard as people were getting interviewed, Experience? No. NEXT. Experience? Yes. Graduate? No. NEXT!\nAfter 6 months of this I moved to oil country Alberta and Had 6 job call backs in the first day. At 2 to 3 times the pay I would have had in BC. Never looked back. But now that the industry has been attacked and the immigration has skyrocketed, Alberta is in decline.\nJust my 2 cents worth, and the people I mentioned back then, I have nothing against. I knew many and they were good people. \nBut the immigrants of today I feel to many are of another breed and not the same as before them.
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| 2023-12-13 | 0 |
For years, I've been drawing comparisons between my life in Canada and that of my American friends. Having lived across three provinces—20 years in Ontario, another decade in Quebec (learning French along the way), and a decade in Vancouver—I adopted a modest lifestyle that saw my savings grow to £40k. However, unforeseen circumstances, like my father's passing, led to financial strain. Despite a good job with travel perks, I found myself yearning for a change. Learning about an Ancestry visa, thanks to a colleague, revealed my eligibility due to my grandparents' immigration from the UK to Canada post-war.\n\nAfter gathering paperwork, I took a leap: severance from my job, selling my condo, and relocating to London, England. Initially hesitant due to the GBP exchange rate, I was pleasantly surprised—my savings lasted three years in England. While my childhood dream was the USA, I found London surprisingly affordable. Though my income was a third of what I earned in Canada, in three years, I found a partner, bought a home within five years, and established a savings account for the first time.\n\nLife in London meant exploring the world, negligible worries about expenses, affordable living costs (from phone bills to dentistry), and accessible public transport. The quality of life, housing affordability, and healthcare in the UK surpassed my Canadian experiences. The lifestyle contrasts were stark—five weeks of paid leave versus minimal vacation time in Canada, affordable education, and fewer societal issues like homelessness or drug abuse.\n\nMy advice? Explore the Ancestry visa for a life-altering opportunity; it’s tied to grandparents' lineage and offers a path to citizenship. The UK's supply and demand dynamics, along with its lower taxes, provide a different economic landscape compared to Canada. And here, what you see on price tags is what you pay—no hidden fees. This shift has transformed my life, and the possibilities seem endless. Check out [the Ancestry visa](https://www.gov.uk/ancestry-visa) for more information!
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| 2023-12-13 | 0 |
For years, I've been drawing comparisons between my life in Canada and that of my American friends. Having lived across three provinces—20 years in Ontario, another decade in Quebec (learning French along the way), and a decade in Vancouver—I adopted a modest lifestyle that saw my savings grow to £40k. However, unforeseen circumstances, like my father's passing, led to financial strain. Despite a good job with travel perks, I found myself yearning for a change. Learning about an Ancestry visa, thanks to a colleague, revealed my eligibility due to my grandparents' immigration from the UK to Canada post-war.\n\nAfter gathering paperwork, I took a leap: severance from my job, selling my condo, and relocating to London, England. Initially hesitant due to the GBP exchange rate, I was pleasantly surprised—my savings lasted three years in England. While my childhood dream was the USA, I found London surprisingly affordable. Though my income was a third of what I earned in Canada, in three years, I found a partner, bought a home within five years, and established a savings account for the first time.\n\nLife in London meant exploring the world, negligible worries about expenses, affordable living costs (from phone bills to dentistry), and accessible public transport. The quality of life, housing affordability, and healthcare in the UK surpassed my Canadian experiences. The lifestyle contrasts were stark—five weeks of paid leave versus minimal vacation time in Canada, affordable education, and fewer societal issues like homelessness or drug abuse.\n\nMy advice? Explore the Ancestry visa for a life-altering opportunity; it’s tied to grandparents' lineage and offers a path to citizenship. The UK's supply and demand dynamics, along with its lower taxes, provide a different economic landscape compared to Canada. And here, what you see on price tags is what you pay—no hidden fees. This shift has transformed my life, and the possibilities seem endless. Check out [the Ancestry visa](https://www.gov.uk/ancestry-visa) for more information!
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| 2023-04-24 | 3 |
As a Canadian myself living in this country for over 30 years... the problem here is that Canada have a diversed industry but because the country itself is so small (population wise) that none of these industries reached economies of scale. While Canada has regions rich with natural resources, all they do is extracted it, sell it to U.S. and then buy the producted that was produced by these raw materials back at a higher cost. The political structure of Canada doesn't help either: Each region essencially specialized in a few industries (Alberta Oil, Ontario Finance, the Alantic provice's fisheries and oil refineries) and there's equalization payment... meaning if one province is doing well... they don't get to reinvest it back into its infrastructure but rather have to spread some of the excess revenue to other failing provinces... this doesn't incentized productivity but rather leads to a race to the bottom where provinces would want to spend their way to get some of that equalization payment money. Also the provinces themselves doesn't have a unifying economic agenda... Alberta's oil could be best served to be refined out east and then shipped but British Columbia doesn't want pipelines and oil shipping facilities on their coastline... and Quebec isn't interested in having a pipeline either so there's nowhere by the oil but to go down to the states. Finally the province of Quebec( which is french speaking and have their own culture and language) isn't interested in the overall prosperity of Canada at all but rather to extract as much special privilages, rights, and money from the Federal government... and even to declare independance from the Rest of Canada.
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| 2023-02-27 | 0 |
I was born in Canada, and lived to see the change from traditional values to this mess...\n\n1 - homelessness\nthe rents and other things went up, and welfare does nt match it. even minimum wage does nt cover it in some cases, \nit s a given that you will finish on the sidewalk, and that does that many will turn to drinking and drugs.\nit will not last long however, as winter comes and there are nt enough shelters, so they conveniently die.\nyou could invest billions, it will not help if you have bad management, you have to dig deeper...\n\n2 - racism\nit s a bit of a backward country in that sense, many rural areas were very late in receiving immigrants,\nso they re not used to see diversity, unlike the US lets say, so there are parts of the country where acceptation\nwill be low, they will discriminate and gossip for sure, but it s more backward as it is racism.\nin time, when they get to know you, it goes away, and they realise how dumb they were.\nI live in Quebec, and you can blame feminism for that, they see Muslims as a symbol of patriarchy and feel threatened.\n\n3 - medical\nit s been like that since about the 90s, again, bad management made the system crash for some reason.\nI admit that I m not sure of what happened exactly there, not enough doctors for sure.\nmaybe it has to do with income, as they can get more revenue in the US or elsewhere.\nI suspect that hospitals s management - administration is too slow and crowded, but I m no expert.\n\n4 - technology\nyeah, well, it s expensive here, cell contracts, internet, probably because of distance, but I suspect\nthat we re being cheated a little too, and since again, we re a bit backward, we re used to the old methods.\nwe re not fast to adopt new trends or fashion either, it s very traditional here mostly.\n\n5 - taxes\nwe have federal and provincial taxes, plus purchase taxes, so yeah, we pay a lot of them.\nexactly, it can vary from 30 - 60% for sure, overtime does nt pay that much, 2 nd jobs can build you a big bill.\nyou re better to save on expenses than trying to earn more, you have to be cheap.\n\n6 - Canadian experience\nI m born here, but I heard of many stories about immigrants s credentials not fitting the local standards.\nin some cases, it sounds ridiculous, and closed minded, not accepting outside concepts and ideas.\nI did nt know about speaking English, but I sure know about French in Quebec...\nhere, it s very insecure about the language, almost paranoid, without speaking French, you will have many troubles.\nagain, it s mostly about bad management, and rules and mentality that self sabotage.\n\n7 - housing\nlike mentioned before, the real estate in general has jumped tremendously.\nI m no financier expert, but an overview of economy tells me that banks compete between countries,\nand they will recourse on artificially inflating the value of real estate, and that plainly kills people.\nthis is the main reason of the homelessness you see on the streets.\nyeah, the soundproofing is quite poor, and some very old buildings can cost a lot in heating.\n\n8 - well, crime is on the rise, and citizens supporting the law and public safety is not very encouraged by the system in place.\nin some way, you re better to shut up than supporting the police... this has to change!\n\n9 - the social services are biased, and impose their vision if you want help.\n\n10 - the mental health policy is too wide, and makes you ill instead of helping.\n\n11 - the pharmaceutical companies are too influencing, and make people sick instead of helping.\n\n12 - the food regulation is lacking, it is not strict enough, allowing chemicals, gmo, and radiation.\n\n13 - feminism is almost radical, especially in Quebec, they segregate genders, and dividing us, it makes the country weak.\n\notherwise, you pretty much covered it well.\n\ngood work sissses.
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| 2023-01-17 | 0 |
I moved from the U.S. to Canada. Some observations:\n1. It's unbelievably safe in Canada. The most dangerous places in Canada are still very safe compared to much of the U.S.\n2. Outside of DC and New York and I guess Chicago and L.A. in the U.S. and Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, you need a car. I disagree that city planning is that much better in Canada.\n3. The maternity leave in Canada is great \n4. The unemployment insurance in Canada is great too\n5. I prefer the Canadian health care system. I never experienced any long wait times. My wife had literal brain surgery and it was free whereas it would've been hundreds of thousands of dollars in the U.S.\n6. Canada is further to the left and is much more woke than the U.S. Everything here is about equity, diversity and inclusion. Even many Canadian conservatives would be moderates in the U.S. but most people know this already.\n7. There is a better work life balance in Canada. I worked a lot more when living in the U.S.\n8. Most Canadians live by the U.S. border so the weather is not that different than most northern American states. But once you go to northern Canada, it is as cold as they say it is.\n9. The U.S. is better for making money.\n10. It is much more racially segregated in the U.S. \n11. Outside cities like Montreal and Toronto, Canada is very white.\n12. Things are much more spread out in Canada. When I lived in the U.S. driving for 1 hour to go somewhere was a long drive. In Canada, that is normal.\n13. Canada is pretty great if you like the outdoors. There's only 36 million people here and outside the major cities, you find small towns and the wilderness. \n14. Canadians are quite friendly. I know my neighbors in the country. I never knew my neighbors in the U.S.\n15. Canadian politics is boring and I like this. However, in the rural areas, it seems that people really hate Justin Trudeau.\n16. Since Canada is so similar to the U.S. it is very easy to adjust to life here.\n17. Outside of Quebec, you really don't need to speak French. \n18. The nationalism of the Quebecois is very surprising. There is no group in the U.S. this nationalistic.
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