Canada has 1.5 million citizens who can't find work. In the last three months alone, the country shed 114,000 jobs. Housing costs have spiked so badly that homelessness has doubled. And this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his government would grant permanent or temporary residency to 2.3 million more migrants over the next three years.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had a two-word review: "This is insane."

The budget plan, reported by Blaze News, breaks down to roughly 380,000 permanent residents and 370,000 temporary residents every year for three years — plus conversions of temporary migrants already in the country to permanent status. That works out to two immigrants for every Canadian birth over the period. For a nation of 42 million people, it means absorbing one new migrant for every 20 existing residents. Adjust for the 8.3 million subsidized migrants already present, and the ratio tightens to one for every 14 native-born Canadians.

To put that in American terms, the equivalent would be the United States importing 7 million migrants per year — 21 million over three years. The U.S. currently legalizes roughly 1 million per year for a population of 330 million.

Poilievre didn't hold back. "It is a disaster," he said. "Our economy is collapsing in real time. Canadian jobs should go to Canadians first." He accused Carney of serving corporate interests over working Canadians, arguing the plan would make it harder for young people to find jobs and afford housing. "Corporate power brokers want to use labor to drive down wages," Poilievre said.

Conservative shadow minister for immigration Michelle Rempel Garner was more concise: "Federal immigration policy is a dumpster fire."

Carney's defense was a masterclass in saying nothing. "We love immigration for people in numbers that we can absorb, where there are jobs, health care and housing but not when the numbers exceed our capacity to absorb people," he said. He also posted on Twitter: "We are masters of our destiny." Stirring words from a man whose country lost 114,000 jobs last quarter while 8.3 million subsidized migrants were already straining services.

The word "sustainable" appeared in Carney's talking points. He called it a "sustainable level of immigration" and said "it's the right thing to do." The record suggests otherwise. The economic damage under Justin Trudeau's mass-immigration push — which Carney is now extending, not reversing — includes raised unemployment, forced-up inflation, suppressed real wages, exploding welfare spending, crashed birth rates, and reduced productivity. Trudeau's 2.2 million Indian migrants alone send an estimated $8 billion per year in remittances back to India while the Canadian government borrows $100 billion annually.

Poilievre pointed to something the budget doesn't advertise. Mark Wiseman, who created the Century Initiative — a plan launched in 2014 with the explicit goal of growing Canada's population to 100 million by the year 2100 — is now serving as Carney's ambassador to the United States. The man designing Canada's relationship with America is the same man who drew up the blueprint for tripling its population. Carney hasn't distanced himself from the Century Initiative. He appointed its architect to his cabinet.

Carney defeated Poilievre in the April 2025 election after Trudeau resigned in January of that year. He arrived with a résumé that included running the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. The expectation — even among some conservatives — was that a banker might at least understand the math. The math says 1.5 million Canadians are unemployed, 67,000 migrants left Canada voluntarily in 2025 because conditions had deteriorated that badly, and the stock market doubled in three years largely on the backs of financial institutions that profit from population growth. Canadian bank stocks gained 1.8% the week of November 6, with analysts projecting 6.5% annual earnings growth — fueled by a customer base that keeps getting bigger whether it can find work or not.

Canada is the cautionary tale America narrowly avoided. The same playbook — suppress wages, spike housing costs, expand the welfare state, call it compassion — ran here until voters put a stop to it. Carney looked at the wreckage Trudeau left behind, consulted with the man who wants 100 million Canadians, and announced 650,000 more foreigners would receive permanent residency over three years.

The banks gained 1.8% that week.