Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a news conference in a hotel ballroom in Ottawa on Dec. 1.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The election of Donald Trump has Pierre Poilievre talking about a crackdown, but it’s not just about security at the U.S. border.
Lots of people, notably provincial premiers, have called for beefing up policing of the border. Mr. Poilievre did too: Two days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the Conservative Leader was arguing Canada’s lax border really is a threat to the U.S. and calling for “boots on the ground, scanners all around, and a stronger border.”
But Mr. Poilievre went beyond the issues Mr. Trump has cited in his threat to impose tariffs on Canadian goods. He went beyond the things that happen at the U.S.-Canada border.
On Sunday, he called for a crackdown on people coming to Canada – tightening visa requirements to make it harder to visit and setting a cap on the number of asylum-seekers.
For a long time, Mr. Poilievre didn’t go there. His party wanted MPs and candidates to steer clear of anything that suggested tough talk on immigration. It’s only in the last few months that Mr. Poilievre has ramped up criticism of the Liberal government’s failure to control a surge of temporary residents.
Now, he’s talking about cracking down on “false refugees” and warning “our Canadian jobs are being taken.”
“I think it is time for a cap. And it is time to get rid of all of the abuse,” Mr. Poilievre said in his press conference on Sunday.
He added: “We need to shut off the flow of false refugee claims who are in no danger in their country of origin but are sneaking in either through our porous border or our weak visa system, and when they land here making a false claim.”
That’s the kind of lexicon Mr. Poilievre had kept from his lips for a long time, and on an issue that wasn’t in the repertoire of attacks against the government in the Commons until November.
Still, opinion polls had been finding increased discontent with immigration levels and politicians were hearing it at constituents’ doors. In Quebec, asylum-seekers crossing at Roxham Road each year were a hot political issue until Mr. Trudeau struck a border deal with the U.S. in March, 2023. The day after Mr. Trump was elected, Quebec Premier François Legault warned a new influx could be coming.
There’s a lot to unpack in what Mr. Poilievre is saying about asylum-seekers, too.
Asylum-seekers are not really a major land border issue since the 2023 deal that allows Canada to turn back asylum-seekers at the U.S. border – as long as that deal holds.
And it is not at all clear what Mr. Poilievre means when he says he wants a cap on asylum-seekers. Does it mean a Conservative government would reject the claims of all those above a chosen number, and deport them? His spokesperson declined to say Monday.
The “how” matters, at least if Mr. Poilievre’s talk about a cap is supposed to mean anything at all. If there is one thing Canadians should learn from decades of debate about asylum-seekers, it is that politicians’ proposals are usually a mirage unless they can explain how they’ll do it.
That applies to Mr. Poilievre’s suggestion that Canada “cut off the flow of false refugees.” It’s not as though that thought never occurred to anyone before. But no one applies to come to Canada as an asylum-seeker. Often they come as visitors, so cutting off the flow means keeping out more visitors.
As Mr. Poilievre pointed out, the Liberal government’s 2016 decision to lift visa requirements led to more asylum claims until visas were reimposed in February.
There were thousands, the Conservative Leader said, whose claims were ultimately rejected, “but only after many years of us paying their bills and funding their legal cases.”
But there is a trade-off with visas. It blunts tourism and trade. Foreign governments complain, and sometimes retaliate.
What would Mr. Poilievre actually do if he becomes prime minister? It’s incredibly vague. But it is clear the Conservative Leader has decided now is the time to talk about getting tough on asylum-seekers in a crackdown that goes beyond the U.S. border.