Canada's Ministers Living in a Dream World
David Strom October 02, 2026There was a time when I thought Canada's immigration policies were superior to the United States'.
For decades, we have placed far too much weight on things like family reunification, and far too little on recruiting talent. For decades, Canada had more selective policies, and it benefited greatly.
In fact, I was only vaguely aware of the fact that our neighbor to the North, our brother from another mother (with whom we are having a family spat), had significantly changed its policies, but it turns out that the country threw out every advantage it had and opted for essentially open borders, and it shows.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne made the old pitch about Canada's policy of recruiting the best and the brightest, and the appeal to people like me is genuine. Who wouldn't want to skim the cream off the top, no matter where the people were born? Would you reject Einstein? Or Elon Musk? Rather than focusing on the accident of birth, bet on who you think is most likely to add real value to society.
https://twitter.com/Smirkley/status/2103948412420796613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2103948412420796613%7Ctwgr%5Ea38aed07ddefd76edd4268f09e694a4a1d5bf6ee%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhotair.com%2Fdavid-strom%2F2026%2F10%2F02%2Fcanadas-ministers-living-in-a-dreamworld-n3819532The thing is, that pitch is outdated, and all the data shows it. If Canada really were recruiting the best talent in the world and being selective in who they choose to bring in, the data would show it in many ways, not the least of which is the fact that adding 17 percent to your population in a decade is obviously not done while being highly selective.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/10/02/canadas-ministers-living-in-a-dreamworld-n3819532
