Justin Trudeau’s immigration crackdown fails to revive his slumping support
Justin Trudeau’s plan to drastically slash immigration targets, but the move has done little to boost his waning popularity, a new poll suggests.
Despite three in four respondents agreeing with the immigration reduction, just over half said it has no impact on their impressions of Trudeau, according to a survey by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News. Some 17% stated it negatively affected their opinion of the prime minister, while 28% reported a positive impact.
Trudeau’s government last month slashed the number of annual permanent-resident admissions by more than 20%, the first cut to a key immigration group in more than a decade. Combined with a plan to shrink the population of foreign students and temporary workers, the policy is a sharp reversal aimed at restoring confidence in the country’s immigration system as well as Trudeau’s Liberal Party.
“The research suggests that the Liberals are better aligning with the views of Canadians by dialing back the number of new people coming into Canada,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist and founder of the polling firm. “That said, the change is most likely to have no political dividend for the Liberals because they initiated the ambitious targets that are being scaled back.”
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Post-pandemic influxes of newcomers, as well as subsequent worsening housing shortages, are contributing to Trudeau’s declining popularity. For more than a year, his party has been trailing behind the Conservatives led by Pierre
