More trust Scheer than Trudeau to manage immigration, poll finds

WEAK KNOWLEDGE ON TOTALS, ORIGINS

More Canadians trust Andrew Scheer to manage Canada’s immigration than Justin Trudeau, and more than half say the Liberals have been too soft on border issues, says new polling from the Angus Reid Institute.

According to the poll, released hours before Monday’s English leaders’ debate, 28 per cent of respondents believe Scheer is best placed to handle the immigration file, whereas 22 per cent believe that of Trudeau, and 18 per cent side with Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader.

Still, 17 per cent of respondents have not made up their minds.

The polling also shows there’s a reasonable level of contentment with the Liberals’ four-year record on immigration: 47 per cent believe the government has done well, while 53 per cent feel it has done poorly. Six per cent of Conservative voters say they feel very positively about the Liberal record, whereas 35 per cent of voters feel very negatively about it.

A majority of 56 per cent say the Trudeau government has been too soft on asylum seekers; just 26 per cent are satisfied with the government’s approach.

The polling, conducted in late September, found many Canadians under-estimated the number of immigrants who come to Canada each year. At present, Canada accepts some 300,000 immigrants each year; unlike in European countries, where many over-estimate the number of immigrants, the poll says, 33 per cent of respondents estimated the figure was between 200,000 and 300,000 and 20 per cent thought fewer than 200,000 were accepted each year.

Indeed, only 20 per cent of respondents were able to correctly identify the government target for immigration.

Once respondents were informed of the levels, near identical numbers of respondents felt the numbers were just right (39 per cent) or too many (40 per cent) while 13 per cent said the levels were too low. There were regional variations here: In Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 47 per cent of respondents felt immigration was too high, whereas 37 per cent felt that way in B.C. Atlantic Canada had the highest number of respondents, at 17 per cent, who felt too few immigrants were accepted.

Unsurprisingly, these figures translate into the party support one would expect: 65 per cent of those who are planning to cast a ballot for Scheer’s Conservative Party believe immigration is too high, and 62 per cent of planned voters for Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada and 47 per cent of Bloc Québécois voters also feel that way.

Fifty-eight per cent of Liberal voters think the number is just right, and 28 per cent of NDP voters and 30 per cent of Green voters believe there should be more immigration.

As well, the polling shows Canadians don’t have a good grasp on the country of origin for most newcomers.

“The most startling data surrounds emigration from Middle East and North Africa,” the poll says.

Indeed, a whopping twothirds of respondents (64 per cent) are under the mistaken impression the majority of immigrants are from that region. In fact, just 12 per cent come from the Mideast and North Africa; most come from Asia, east Asia and southeast Asia.

Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, said part of the reason for the misunderstanding could be that while Canadians have had a robust public conversation about refugee resettlement, especially from Syria, this hasn’t really happened on immigration itself.

“We have not heard our leadership … talking really about the economic case for immigration and how Canada actually goes to great lengths to ensure that the immigrants who are coming in are for the most part highly skilled, educated and ready to work,” Kurl said.

The poll was of 1,522 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum, a grouping of people who participate in polls. The margin of error is plus to minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.