Unease over handling of refugee issue: poll
Canadians questioning feds’ ability to manage situation, survey finds
OTTAWA— Canadians are concerned about Ottawa’s handling of asylum seekers, voicing skepticism about why so many are crossing into Canada and demanding tougher measures to curb the arrivals, a new survey shows.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have staunchly defended Canada’s responsibility to accept the thousands of refugees crossing from the United States and process their claims through official channels.
But the poll results — released Friday by the Angus Reid Institute — make clear the rising political stakes on the issue, revealing that Canadians are questioning the federal government’s ability to manage the situation.
“There’s definitely potential trouble here for the Liberals,” said Shachi Kurl, executive director of the institute.
While the number of border crossers dropped in May and June, “numbers do not matter,” Kurl said in an interview.
“It is perception,” she said. “The longer that this has been an issue, the deeper that anxiety and concern has settled into the core of Canadians.
“The Liberals are at risk of losing control of the narrative on this issue. . . . It is both an ops and management issue for them and it is a communications issue,” Kurl said.
The federal Conservatives, led by Michelle Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill), the party’s immigration critic, have been outspoken on the issue, accusing the Liberals of failing to manage the bor- der, a view that the Alberta MP voiced again Friday. “The truth is that the prime minister has only made the situation worse, and permanent, by failing to take action,” Rempel said in a statement.
The survey suggests the political criticisms are paying off for the Conservatives, showing that 48 per cent per cent of Canadians believe party leader Andrew Scheer is best trusted to deal with the issue, compared with 35 per cent for Trudeau and 16 per cent for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
“They seem to have finally found the wedge they were looking for,” Kurl said, adding that the Conservatives are finding traction on this issue.
The online survey of 1,500 Canadians was done July 25-30. A sample of this size would carry a
“The Liberals are at risk of losing control of the narrative on this issue.” SHACHI KURL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ANGUS REID INSTITUTE
margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, according to the institute.
The findings also reveal public misperceptions on the issue. For example, refugee experts say the influx does not represent a crisis and that current numbers can be handled by the system.
Yet two-thirds of Canadians say the current situation is a “crisis” and roughly the same number think that Canada has taken in “too many” asylum seekers for the country to handle, the poll found.
Many Canadians also overestimate how many asylum claimants have come to Canada — 15 per cent peg the number at more than 100,000; another 33 per cent say it’s between 50,000 and 100,000. According to government figures, the actual total in 2017 and 2018 is 31,337.
The results split along party lines and age. Conservative supporters and those over the age of 35 are less accepting of the asylum seekers and desire tougher measures to curb their entry.
But the survey does reveal frustrations across party lines with 56 per cent of Liberal backers and 53 per cent of NDP supporters also saying that the current numbers are “too many” for Canada to handle.
“There’s a political danger for the Liberals in not being alive to the sense of anxiety and urgency that Canadians are feeling about this,” Kurl said.
But she said the Conservatives have to be careful to not to allow partisan criticism to get out of hand.
Federal officials have struggled since last year to cope with an influx of refugee claimants who have crossed into Canada from the United States on foot through unguarded sections of the border, mostly in Quebec.
The influx has put pressure on Quebec and more recently Ontario to handle the refugee claimants. Toronto Mayor John Tory in May called the situation a crisis and castigated Ottawa for its failure to provide financial support to the city.
Toronto MP Bill Blair, newly appointed to the new post of minister of border security and organized crime reduction, met with Tory Friday and reiterated Ottawa’s pledge to give the city $11 million to help offset its costs with the promise of additional funding to come. Greg MacEachern, senior vice-president of government relations at Proof Strategies, said that Blair’s promotion in the July cabinet shuffle suggests that Trudeau is aware of the concerns of Canadians.
That shuffle created a new cabinet post dedicated to border security and the appointment of Blair — former chief of the Toronto Police Service — as its minister puts a law-and-order focus on the issue to counter the concerns of Canadians, MacEachern said.
“The reality is that in politics or advertising, the fear factor works. … There is a need for the government to step up the positive communication,” he said.