Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre warned that "fake refugees" have been taking advantage of Canada, straining both housing and government programs in recent years.

Canadian opposition leader and former Prime Minister candidate Pierre Poilievre blasted "fake refugees" during a Thursday appearance on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.

At one point, Poilievre appeared poised to become the next prime minister and lead his Conservatives to a majority government after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his plans to step down. But in a turnaround sparked in part by President Donald Trump's threats of annexation and his tariffs on America's close ally and northern neighbor, Liberal Mark Carney won.

Since then, Poilievre has been keeping his political ambitions alive, appearing primed for another bid at Canada’s highest office and working to do outreach to Americans to encourage them to ditch tariffs on Canadian goods. Rogan spoke with Poilievre about the various policy changes he would implement to help everyday people in his country if he got voted into office. 

While he talked about issues like cutting down on inflation and bureaucracy, the rise of "fake refugees" is an issue for Canadians that is coming from the outside and taking advantage of their generosity.

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Pierre Poilievre appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast.

"We're giving a lot of money to fake, fake refugees, people who come in and don't actually – they're not actually fleeing danger," he said. "Like I love real refugees, my wife was a refugee, but I have no time for people who are pretending but they're not really."

When Rogan asked for clarification on what it means to pretend to be a refugee, Poilievre summarized, "They're not actually endangered in their home country. So they've come to be declared themselves as students and then wanting to stay, declaring refugee status."

While the politician said he ultimately sympathizes to a certain degree, one should focus on putting Canadians first.

"They just want to have a better life, so I don't begrudge them as people, but we can't spend money on enhanced social services, advanced programs that we as Canadians don't get for people who are not paying in," he said. 

"If they're not real refugees, they shouldn't be brought in as refugees," he added, calling to distinguish between people who are actually in danger in their home countries and those merely seeking to take advantage of the system.

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Pierre Poilievre, noted that while he has sympathy for legitimate refugees such as his wife, there are many people taking advantage of the system.  (David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The politician confirmed to Rogan that this problem is on such a large scale it has impacted the Canadian economy. 

"Right now it's a challenge because we had a big number of international students and temporary foreign workers that came in in very large numbers," he said. "In like two or three years. We were bringing in about a million people a year, which in America's terms would be 10 million, like just if you're doing per capita."

He added that this caused a massive housing shortage to the point where one might find 26 students living on one basement. 

When asked how one might remedy this, he said, "Well, when their work permit and their visitor visa runs out, then we have to encourage them to head back lawfully."

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Canadian Pierre Poilievre noted that Canada has taken in massive amounts of people in recent years, to the point that the American equivalent would be have taken in 10 million per year. (REUTERS/Amber Bracken)

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"Right, but you don't want to do it ICE style?" Rogan asked.

"No, no, I don't think we need to do that," Poilievre said. "I just think we have to be orderly and lawful about it." 

When asked by Rogan whether Canadians are on board with that, the politician agreed, saying, "We're a nation of immigrants, but we're also a nation of laws and we — there's a general consensus, like across the spectrum in Canada that there was, the population growth was too fast for like four or five years. And so we're, we're trying to unwind that now."

Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Alexander.hall@fox.com.

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