October 5th, 2024 | Grant Johnson

Maxime Bernier Vows Moratorium On Immigration, No More Foreign Workers 

The leader of the People's Party is tightening his party's immigration policies.

Maxime Bernier is at it again, not that he ever stopped. This past year has seemed a bit quieter than usual in the world of the People’s Party of Canada, as Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives have been snatching up the headlines and the poll numbers. But, get ready.

Max is back on the events beat and is crisscrossing the country in preparation for next year’s election. After a tour on the West Coast, he has been hustling in Ontario and promises to make a journey to Alberta next month. What’s he hearing from the grassroots? What issues will the PPC focus on in the future? As we haven’t had a one-on-one with Bernier in some time, we decided to ask:

Bernier: “When I was doing public events just after the time of Covid the questions were about our Charter of Rights and the fact that the government did not respect the Constitution. They were concerned about everything that happened during Covid hysteria, but now it’s more about immigration. People are seeing that the Trudeau government has an open borders immigration policy and they don’t like it.”

Bernier is right. Recent polls are showing that Canadians are finally waking up to the fact that Canada’s immigration problem needs to be addressed. With people under 35, the PPC is polling higher than ever. Most seriously, the questions around housing and inflation need to be tackled and more voters know Bernier gets it.

“The link between the cost of living and immigration is correlated. It’s a simple question of supply and demand. When demand is high and the supply is the same, then prices go up.” 

But it’s not just about the mechanics of economics.

“Coming from Quebec I know the importance of immigration and we have discussions about the level of immigration, because Quebec is a francophone province and they want to keep their culture and it’s important for them to have people who will come and integrate into Quebec’s society. This includes being able to speak French.

I started the debate in 2019, in English Canada, and that was the first time I was trying to have a national discussion about the level of immigrants, but I had the Globe and Mail and all these mainstream media opponents saying it wasn’t appropriate because it’s a taboo subject. But I was right in 2019 and I’m even more right today.”

Bernier has been more right than wrong on most things since his leadership run for the Conservatives in 2017 and, even when he’s been wrong, he’s learned lessons and changed accordingly. His traditionally libertarian philosophies have been tempered in the face of aggressive progressivism delivered by the Liberals over the past nine years. He’s not afraid to point out the weaponization of immigration against normal Canadians.

“It’s very difficult for young Canadians to have jobs with these temporary foreign workers that are coming to our country and taking jobs from Canadians and it’s cheap labour for big businesses. With 1.2 million newcomers arriving last year, this is the population of Saskatchewan being added to Canada every year. This isn’t sustainable. Not only is this not sustainable economically, but culturally. When you have people coming from the third-world, your country will become a third-world country.”

When Bernier was in the Harper government from 2006-2015, immigration numbers were roughly 250,000 people a year. During Covid the numbers dropped substantially. Today the total number of immigrants is well over 1 million a year. The People’s Party of Canada has had a longstanding policy aimed at reducing the number of permanent immigrants to a range between 100 to 150 thousand people a year.

No longer.

“This is not the position of the party anymore. Now we are saying that we need to have a moratorium on permanent residents until we are able to fix the challenges we have on housing, healthcare and education. The schools are full. The Quebec government said we cannot accept all these refugees and the Alberta government said the same thing.”

A moratorium on immigration is pretty severe, but Bernier is not messing around. What about international “students” who overstay their welcome? 

“Our position is to deport them. After you come here to study, as was the case years ago, you go back to your country. If you don’t, then we as a country will deport you. The Liberals are instead saying we’ll give you permanent residency. That means that these people don’t respect our legislation, they are staying here, we are giving them a nice gift and giving them permanent residency. We have legislation in Canada that must be respected and that’s not the case anymore.

So our position with international students is to radically diminish the number of international students and not allow them to work part-time while studying. If they came here to study they must have the money to study.”

Okay. But what about temporary foreign workers?

“We need to abolish that.That is our position. You have all these big corporations that hire temporary foreign workers instead of finding a Canadian for that job. If they are unable to find a Canadian for that job then maybe it’s because the salary is not so good. 

We are entering a recession, not only in Canada, but in the US and Europe also. Huge deficits and inflation and stagflation maybe in a couple of months…let’s work to stop this. Let’s only have some temporary foreign workers for seasonal agriculture… that’s the only exception. That’s our position, and Canadian corporations will have two choices… they can increase salaries and Canadians will work for them, or they can invest in productivity-enhancing technologies which benefit the country.”

Bernier went on to talk about the next election which he believes won’t occur until October 27th, 2025. The main reason for this, is that the Hindu festival Diwali and the Alberta municipal elections conflict with a national election during this time. The real reason likely has more to do with 80 MPs qualifying for their gold-plated pensions if they reach the six-year mark on that date.

Whenever the date may be, it will be glorious to see Bernier on stage throwing haymakers and dropping truth bombs all over the stage while Trudeau and Singh try to out-Woke each other and Poilievre does his “appeal to centrists” with rhyming couplet slogans or whatever. Bernier’s presence was sorely missed back in 2021 when the powers-that-be engineered his exclusion by changing the rules for qualification regarding debate participation. Next year, he is guaranteed to be there.

For us “Old Stock” Canadians, having an unapologetic voice expressing our interests is going to be a blast of fresh air. Despite all the hype around Poilievre, those of us on the right side of the right know that he’s basically doing an impression of Bernier in order to get at that grassroots base. Jenni Bryne has helped to craft the type of politician that the CPC needs to exist in the year 2024, not Harper with a smile, not an affable Red Tory, but a fighter. A right-wing fighter.

Poilievre is not that guy. 

Bernier is. 

When Conservative voters elect Poilievre in 2025 in order to “get rid of Trudeau”, they’re going to be right back to 1984 with another Brian Mulroney cucking and failing until yet another “throw the bums out” moment in 8 to 10 years. (Probably sooner as the Great Replacement takes effect, and people quickly blame Poilievre for every “clean up the Liberal mess” decision he is forced to make.)

We really can’t keep going on like this or the baseline we take for granted will be replaced by something far more Argentine.

The People’s Party of Canada offers real conservatives the chance to make a statement and vote their conscience. Much like Nigel Farage, Maxime Bernier’s persistence may pay off with his timing. If the PPC can get some seats, and keep growing the party, all while the big three mainstream parties continue to fail and degrade… we may begin to see something amazing on the horizon.