I think this is what the modern version of Martin-Chretien policy looks like. He's going back to basics emphasizing infrastructure and federal responsibilities.
I just hope we get balance the books by the end of the Carney years, which given the state of the opposition and the PM's relatively young age of 60 and good fitness, will go well into the 2030s.
I wholly support Carney significant slashing of TFWs. Why would any firm invest in innovation or new equipment if they can hire cheap overseas labour? TFW should only be seasonal agriculture work, with the TFWs sent home each season. If PSWs, childcare, food processing, service and restaurants, construction or manufacturing need workers, they can compete for Canadian citizen and PR labour with wages and incentives, while innovating and investing to reduce their reliance on unskilled/semi-skilled labour. As for international students, hopefully we can find pathways to attract the best (we'll see, the best have many options), but the days of diploma mills and post-secondary schools (and their provincial overseers) relying on foreign money to pad the books are over. Sharpen those pencils, and offer programs that Canadian students want and that employers and the country need.
And I don't think Canada can fix its demographic problems with mass migration from the developing world, because once those new immigrants (and their large family) are settled, their own children once they become adults will assume the low birth rates of other established Canadians. My two adult, recently uni-graduated kids have many friends who are relatively new to Canada, and while they may have four or more siblings, they themselves have no plans to have children at all, with the women all with advanced STEM degrees and building their careers, not families. My 20-something parents arrived in 1977 with us three kids in tow, but us three produced only three kids total, for a replacement rate of only 1.5 children per couple (or 0.75 per person). The World's population growth has stagnated, with only sub-Saharan Africa seeing any strong growth. Canada needs to look to Japan and other advanced countries that are figuring out how to run a country with fewer people, because even with mass immigration, that's where Canada is going to end up. Women just don't want to have children any more, and those that do, seem to want at most two, and start later. Hopefully Carney's reset on immigration will start us down a new path of stabilizing the country as its population flatlines.
