E-Paper
50% Canadians say immigration has negative effect on country
The majority of respondents from four provinces, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, held unfavourable views on immigration
Just over a third of Canadian believe immigration is having a positive effect on the country, according to a new poll. At the same time, the number holding a negative view on immigration has nearly doubled since 2022 to reach almost 50%.
These are among the principal findings of a poll released by the Vancouver-based agency Research Co.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, just 34% of Canadians thought immigration was having a mostly positive effect in Canada, down nine points since a similar poll conducted by the agency in July last year.
Meanwhile, negative views have moved up by a similar percentage, up nine points to 48%.
“In February 2022, only 26% of Canadians described immigration in a negative light,” Mario Canseco, President of Research Co, said in a release, adding, “The proportion has jumped to 48 per cent in the first month of 2026.”
The majority of respondents from four provinces, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, held unfavourable views on immigration. In other provinces, including British Columbia and Quebec, the negativity was more muted.
While previous polls from other agencies had portrayed a negative view of high levels of immigration to the country, the public mood appears to be tilting further towards an unfavourable view of immigration itself.
At the same time, the poll found that 42% of those sampled wanted “the number of legal immigrants who are allowed to relocate in Canada to decrease,” more than three times the number favouring an increase in intake of newcomers.
The poll was highlighted by former Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who blamed the situation on the policies adopted by the government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a post on X, Kenney said, “This is perhaps Justin Trudeau’s single biggest failure: turning the developed world’s strongest pro-immigration consensus on its head by wrecking what was once a model immigration system.”
But, he said, “blame must be shared with open borders factions of both the business community and the political left, plus several provincial governments” as they “kept demanding massive increases in levels, and a concurrent lowering of standards.”
As immigration continues to impact politics in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced a series of measures to curb intake in November, particularly reducing the number of international students and temporary workers coming to the country.
However, sentiment towards immigration has assumed xenophobic overtones in Canada with outlet like CBC News reporting that far right groups are calling for “remigration” or mass deportation of ethnic minorities. As Indians constitute the largest immigrant cohort and are a visible minority, they have become the main target of anti-newcomer bias.
