Majority oppose Liberal handling of irregular border crossers
Respondents in Prairies, Quebec more critical
A majority of Canadians give the federal government bad marks for the way it has handled asylum seekers entering Canada between official border crossings, a new poll suggests.
Sixty-eight per cent of respondents believe the government is handling the issue of irregular asylum seekers poorly, according to the DART Insight poll prepared for Postmedia. In contrast, 65 per cent of respondents feel the federal government is doing a good job managing the regular immigration system.
The survey found that 89 per cent of likely Conservative voters, 55 per cent of likely NDP voters and 47 per cent of likely Liberal voters believe the Liberals are mishandling the influx of more than 36,000 people who have crossed the border illegally from the United States into Canada since January 2017.
Women, people aged 18 to 34, and those with a university education were more likely to say the government is doing a good job, while respondents in the Prairie Provinces and Quebec were more likely to be critical.
The poll showed a nearly even split between those who believe Canada is admitting too many immigrants — 39 per cent — and those who believe the government has landed on the right number — 38 per cent. Another 12 per cent feel Canada should be taking in more immigrants. Canada plans to take in 310,000 new permanent residents in 2018, increasing to 340,000 in 2020.
For months, the issue of irregular border crossers has triggered fiery debate in Ottawa, with the Conservatives accusing the government of doing too little to secure Canada’s borders and stop the influx of asylum seekers. The crux of the issue is the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires asylum seekers to claim refugee status in the first country in which they arrive, and allows border agents to turn back asylum seekers trying to enter Canada from the U.S. — but only if they arrive at official ports of entry. The Conservatives believe the agreement should be extended across the entire border to deter people from crossing illegally, while the NDP has called for the agreement to be scrapped, arguing the U.S. is no longer a safe country in which to make an asylum claim.
The new poll also tried to assess respondents’ views on diversity, asking whether Canadians should or should not “celebrate the multicultural diversity of the people who live here.” Overall, 62 per cent of respondents said Canada should be celebrated as a “cultural mosaic,” while 38 per cent said diversity should not be celebrated “because it just creates differences between citizens when we should be a melting pot into one Canadian culture.”
The poll surveyed 5,769 adults who were members of an online panel between Sept. 13 and 19, and would have been accurate to +/- 2.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled.