Immigration policy ruled Canadians' attention weeks before Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as prime minister in January. But as voters voted Monday, the issue has significantly lost the traction behind the country's economy and pressing concerns over the Trump tariffs.
Trudeau's government announced in November 2022 that it planned to turbocharge immigrants to address Canada's labor shortages and that the government planned to introduce roughly 1.5 million immigrants between 2023 and 2025.
But when those newcomers arrived and settled in largely dense urban areas, Canadians denounced rising levels of immigration for increased pressure on housing costs and social services like healthcare.
As Trudeau's popularity declined, his unpopular policy of accelerating immigration was dramatically rescinded. Several ministers announced their resignation when it seemed Trudeau and the Liberals could not recover from the political damages of policies, including immigration.
When Canada rewind its path for newcomers, Mark Miller, the last immigration minister under Trudeau, explained the government's decision to tie social stocks to the number of newcomers and reduce entry.
That moment represents a sudden change in Canadian tone.
“For a long time, immigration has always been praised as a net benefit to the Canadian economy,” said Antje Ellermann, director of the Center for Immigration Studies at the University of British Columbia. “It was a real mantra and policymakers were very careful not to talk about the potential costs of immigration.”
After that, the immigration issues that partially caused the Liberal Party's downfall disappeared into the background, after Trump began amplifying his threat to Canada's economy somewhat overnight.
“If that weren't for Trump, I think immigration is a very prominent issue in this campaign,” Ellerman said.
Polls show that Canadians, even among many newcomers, think that it accepts more immigrants than they should.
“Many Canadian immigrants also feel that there are too many immigrants,” said Jack Jedwab, chief executive of the Canadian Research Association, a research group, and Metropolis Institute, a think tank focused on migration.
Jedwab's recent analysis is based on a survey conducted by the company Leggers, showing higher support for the Liberal Party among immigrants whose primary language is neither English nor French. But that's a small minority in Canada.
“Our demographics have evolved so much that it's difficult to actually mention “immigration votes,” Jedwab said, adding that immigrants tend to vote based on local trends.
In Brampton, Ontario, it is evident in Ontario, a suburban city west of Toronto, where more than half of its residents are South Asian. Conservative leader Pierre Polyable, focusing on the April 9 campaign, focused on crime management, knowing that city residents were facing ramp-stretched home invasions, car theft and rickets of terror, targeting immigrants.
