The idea that Ontario's post-secondary institutions could exert enough pressure to convince the Liberals to walk back a cap on international student enrolment doesn't sit well with the leader of Canada's Conservative Party.
While in Kitchener this morning, Pierre Poilievre spoke to the issue that last week led to a war of words between the presidents of two Ontario colleges and a request that Ontario's auditor general launch an independent investigation into international student enrolment at Conestoga College.
Poilievre also made a stop in Cambridge later in the day.
He said Canada's immigration system, once considered "the best in the world" for its policies to welcome international students and temporary foreign workers in a way that caused very little division or controversy, has been ruined by the Liberals.
"Trudeau, through his total incompetence, opened the floodgates in a way that was disconnected from the number of homes to house people and the amount of jobs to employ them," he said, citing a story out of Barrie where "25 international students" were found living in the basement of one home.
He said foreign students have been found "living under bridges and on street corners" and claims they've been "sold into prostitution and gangs."
"Some go home in body bags. This is the nightmare that Justin Trudeau has unleashed."
Poilievre said under a Conservative government, international students would have to be registered at "a real educational institution that offers a real certificate.
He would also ensure incoming foreign students have enough money in their accounts to pay their bills while they're here and prove that they have homes.
And a Conservative government would have a "mathematical formula" that links population growth to growth in the supply of housing, he said.
"The only way to eliminate the housing shortage is to have homes faster than we have people."
Poilievre was at Fiddleheads Health and Nutrition in Kitchener this morning surrounded by "Common Sense" signs and shelves of natural health products to talk a bit about his party's opposition to Health Canada's regulations for natural health supplements and its impact on the cost of goods.
But he didn't stop there in his criticism of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's taxes and inflationary policies, which he says have led to higher costs for Canadians across the board, with rental rates in Kitchener now costing more for a two bedroom "than it does for a castle in Sweden on the lake."
"The average rent has doubled, the average mortgage payment has more than doubled and needed down payment for the average home has doubled," he said calling it the "worst housing crisis in the G7."
It's "crazy when you think about it because we have the most land to build on."
The federal government's penchant for printing cash has led to inflation, rising interest rates and now a record number of Canadians to face the prospect of losing their homes, he said.
He also criticized "local government gatekeepers" for helping to inflate the cost of land with zoning policies that prevent building more affordable housing. He called it "great for the very rich" who are able to speculate and buy up property that meets municipal requirements for market rate housing while keeping others out.
"Thank you very much to the NDP and Liberal socialists for stuffing the pockets and the faces of the billionaires while screwing over the middle class and causing for the first time in Canadian history that young working class kids and immigrants cannot even afford the prospect of ever owning a home," he said.
It was the Conservative leader's first stop on a tour of locations in Waterloo region that had him scheduled to visit Kenworth Trucks on Barnes Road in Cambridge before a stop at the Huron Nature Centre in Kitchener later this afternoon.
In Kitchener Poilievre was greeted by recently elected Cambridge Conservative candidate Connie Cody and Kitchener-South Hespeler Conservative candidate Matt Strauss, both of whom stood beside him as he reviewed a list of changes he hopes to make should he be elected the next prime minister.
