Jay Hill was the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Prince George—Peace River in British Columbia from 1993 to 2010.Over a month ago, I decided to try writing a book. Other than hundreds of guest newspaper columns and myriad speeches on enumerable topics over the past forty years, I am not a writer. I have had no formal education to prepare me to undertake such a daunting task. Indeed, I only achieved a grade twelve diploma way back in 1970, largely due to the constant and unrelenting encouragement, and at times direct intervention, of my mother. Given this, you’d be forgiven for asking, why?What could motivate someone like me to accept such a challenge?Strangely, the answer is Canada. Or rather, the Canada that was, before two men named Trudeau destroyed it, and a WEF puppet named Carney returned home to finish the job.It isn’t just the countless scandals former prime mininster Justin Trudeau and his corrupt government were guilty of during his decade of darkness for which he and the Liberals were never held accountable. It was not SNC-Lavalin, the draconian mishandling of COVID-19 mandates, unlawful use of the Emergencies Act, or the accumulation of our now $1.3 trillion debt due to endless misspending and waste, which continues today.It is all of that combined with a higher cost of living, lack of affordable housing, social unrest, race-based policies, climate scaremongering, rising antisemitism, climbing youth unemployment, and the deliberate destruction of our national identity, and the fact that the Liberals are still governing over us. And of course, mass immigration.Even if the Alberta UCP were to only tackle one of these critical issues that continue to transform Canada for the worse, it would definitely be an improvement. However, rather than provide the leadership every Albertan knows, or should know, is urgently needed on the immigration situation, Premier Smith has decided to delay meaningful action until after she asks for public input via referenda..I am not opposed to referendums. In fact, early in my Reform Party days in the 1980s, advocating for direct democracy was a big part of our platform. But the questions should not replace leadership on time-sensitive, budget-busting, society-threatening issues like our current disastrous, Trudeau/Liberal created immigration fiasco.If the dramatic influx of new Canadians, and by extension new Albertans, has overwhelmed our healthcare, education, and housing sectors as seriously as the Premier laid out in her recent speech, I would expect her to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT instead of postponing urgently needed action till fall. As the old saying went, “why wait till spring, do it NOW!”I believe that just like the referendum on the punitive, erroneously named “Equalization Formula” held on October 18, 2021, the response to Smith’s immigration questions is obvious to at least the same sixty-plus percent of Albertans. And what was the return for the time and expense of the Equalization Referendum? Absolutely nothing.Anyone who has ever considered proposing an amendment to the Canadian Constitution could have informed our Alberta government of that obvious outcome. I submit this will be the likely result of some, if not all, of her announced Constitutional amendments, as well. Therefore, it is a waste of time, effort, and money. Which begs the question, is our provincial government naïve enough to believe all ten provincial legislatures, the House of Commons, and the Canadian Senate itself would ever agree to amend the Constitution to abolish the Senate?Back to the current top-priority issue of immigration. If it is so time-sensitive, and it is, why doesn’t Premier Smith organize an immediate First Ministers meeting solely to address it? Even our globe-trotting minority Prime Minister has belatedly observed that he wants to shift immigration levels to a “sustainable” level. In fact, he has admitted what should by now be obvious to every single Canadian. Immigration has outpaced our country’s capacity for absorption and exceeded the ability to provide adequate housing, healthcare, education, and jobs.Let us focus for a moment on only one of the financial implications of Canada’s out-of-control immigration. Under the Carney Liberals, the cost to Canadian taxpayers of providing healthcare for just the refugee claimants alone has skyrocketed to $1 billion annually. Yes, that is with a “B” …as in a thousand million dollars!.To be fair, the federal government has belatedly made changes to decrease admission. Last year, the numbers of temporary foreign worker and student visas were significantly reduced, but what about the illegal intake? While I want to state unequivocally that to the best of my knowledge, most Muslims are not radical, extremist, or advocate for violence, Canadians deserve to know they can trust “the system” to properly screen out those who intend to undermine Canada and do harm to our citizens.Any Canadian paying even a modicum of attention to what has been unfolding across Europe, and specifically in Great Britain, should be scared spitless at what is happening in Canada. Indeed, it may already be too late.In 1952, the year I was born, Canada’s population was roughly 14.5 million, of which only a few hundred were Muslim, or close to 0%. Comparably, of the over 41.5 million residents in Canada today, Muslims make up roughly 5% or upwards of two million people.At the risk of being labelled Islamophobic, I believe we must learn from the experience of other nations and urgently undertake a comprehensive study of what effect this is having on our society. We must be honest in determining the balance between the majority of Muslims that immigrate to Canada, seeking a peaceful new homeland to raise a family, and those radical Islamists that seek to destroy the foundation Canada was built upon, and have purposefully misinterpreted their religion to spread hatred and impose their view of Sharia Law.The recently published C.D. Howe Institute report authored by James Yousif might shock you. Among other frightening details, the report states that in the four years between 2019 and 2023, Canada’s Immigration Review Board accepted nearly 25,000 asylum claimants without questioning or interviewing them. Just come on in.Back when I left parliament in 2010, Canada accepted about 6,000 people claiming asylum per year. Under Trudeau, that number has exploded to over 100,000 annually with almost 80% of those being rubber-stamped. How many of these claimants are extremists connected to banned organizations like Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Al Shabab, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, or any other registered terrorist group? Or the Muslim Brotherhood, which probably should be listed but is not? How many present themselves as peaceful but want an Islam-only state where everyone must obey their rules?.We do not know because at the very time Trudeau threw the door wide open, no one bothered to interview them to ask any questions. Now this same government, with the same bureaucrats, wants to just accept them all because the backlog is too big to deal with!Instead, I have a suggestion for our federal government.Until the backlog is cleared up, until those who have gone underground after their student, visitor, or temporary foreign worker visas expired have been found and deported, until all so-called asylum seekers, illegal border-crossers, and self-declared refugees have been thoroughly researched, interviewed, and identified for who they are, STOP all further entry.Slam Trudeau’s open door and nail it shut!In the meantime, a special committee of Parliament with members comprising the most knowledgeable from all parties about immigration must be seized with this issue. The mandate must include a firm deadline for recommendations to completely overhaul the system to reduce immigration to a “sustainable level” and end systemic abuse of our far too lenient, porous system..Until we can return our system of immigration to some semblance of common sense, find the people who do not qualify and deport them, and stop accepting anyone else until that is completed.Is it wrong to want to rebuild Canada to be the country that exists for one central purpose? To be the refuge that welcomes newcomers who commit to the golden rule, “to do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Just as we want this from would-be immigrants, we should remind everyone fortunate enough to live in Canada that this should be the daily goal for all of us, regardless of gender, colour, age, education, nationality, status, religion, or any other individual descriptor or identifier. We should not feel guilty for wanting a country like that for future generations, whether in Canada, the West, or just Alberta?Instead of waiting till October 19 to find out how Albertans think about immigration, temporarily stopping all further immigration is the necessary action our provincial government must immediately engage in with “other like-minded provinces” to force real change upon the Carney Liberal government and Parliament.Finally, to return to the book I quit writing, I found that before I got too far into my historical novel about the destruction of Canada, I had to stop. It was too depressing; too detrimental to my mental health to dwell on day after day. It’s too bad because with all the unpredictable fictitious twists I envisioned, it may have been a bestseller. Jay Hill was the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Prince George—Peace River in British Columbia from 1993 to 2010.
