MALCOLM: Liberals broke our immigration system. We need Conservatives to fix it.

Juno News co-founder Candice Malcolm urges the Conservatives to step up with real solutions to fix Canada’s broken immigration system — not waste political capital on low-hanging fruit.

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Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada announced that they will crack down on fraud and remove extended benefits from bogus refugees who have had their asylum claims rejected by a federal court. The reaction from Liberals and elites in Canada was fast and furious: they jumped to accuse the Conservatives of – you guessed it – racism, xenophobia, dog whistle politics and all the usual slurs directed at anyone trying to address our broken immigration system.

Conservatives need to push back, argues Candice Malcolm, and present a new suite of ideas to fix our broken immigration system. Canada needs drastic changes, not just tinkering, and it will require bold leadership and strategic, long-term thinking.

Here is Candice’s message to Conservatives (first posted on X):

Cutting off extended benefits for illegal immigrants is obvious, low-hanging fruit – so much so that the Conservatives shouldn’t waste political capital on it. They’re going to get called “racist” by elites and Liberals no matter what, so why not propose something meaningful?

Here are some ideas:

• End all temporary foreign work programs

• Deport all illegal immigrants

• Fast-track asylum hearings, or possibly send asylum claimants to a third party location while they await hearings (like Australia does with Nauru)

• Require visas from countries that abuse our asylum system. Automatically reject asylum claims from students whose visas are expiring

• Limit student visas to 5% of any college or university’s student body

• Reduce or pause economic immigration streams until GDP per capita grows by a certain per cent per year

• Bring back in-person interviews for all immigrants

• Crack down on immigration fraud and strip citizenship from those who committed fraud to become a citizen, show allegiance to a foreign terrorist group, or are convicted of a violent crime or gun crime

• Reserve social benefits for citizens, require visa-holders (including PRs) to buy health insurance

• Fortify Canadian citizenship: Adopt the Swiss model and require newcomers to spend 10 years living in Canada, pass a grade 12 equivalent English/French course, show sincere knowledge of Canadian customs and history, show financial stability (no social assistance use or major debts) and require references from Canadians citizens

• Most importantly for Conservatives: whatever you do, DON’T listen to people like Andrew Coyne!

It was the Liberals who broke our immigration system and destroyed the consensus. A majority of Canadians now oppose mass immigration. A majority say numbers are too high and must be lowered

Canadians rely on Conservatives to clean up the mess made by Liberals, and right now Conservatives have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address very real problems and propose a strong and secure system for our future. It needs to be based in self-respect and a revitalized national pride. This is one area where Conservatives can meaningfully differentiate themselves from Liberals. They must confidently and unapologetically propose real changes.

In today’s podcast, Candice is joined by conservative activist and serial entrepreneur Matt Spoke, to talk about immigration and how to fix the broken system. They discuss Poilievre’s announcement, the deranged response from the Liberal establishment, and the pathetic defence of the indefensible by a Liberal cabinet minister – that illegal immigrants deserve better social benefits than Canadians.