(ReliableNews.org) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has increased immigration in the country since taking office in 2015. His father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was similarly welcoming to migrants during his administration in the 1970s. After years of increased immigration, it appears the PM is backpedaling.
On April 2, Trudeau warned Canada is having trouble handling the number of migrants who have entered the country in recent years. He said both temporary workers and international students “have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.” According to the prime minister, immigrants are now more than 7% of the population, an increase of over 5% since 2017, when that number was just 2%.
Trudeau said the Canadian government wants to decrease those numbers because that would be a “responsible approach to immigration” by focusing on the permanent residents but holding the line on “temporary immigration that has caused so much pressure” on the nation’s communities.
The prime minister’s patience with the increased immigration began wearing thin earlier this year. Rental costs and the prices for other services have significantly increased in the last few years since the end of the worldwide health crisis. That has caused the mood of Canadian citizens to shift about immigration as well.
According to a Reuters report, Canadians supported immigration by huge margins in 2020. But now support is at a three-decade low. In October, Ekos Research surveyed Canadians and shared the results with the news organization. Over 44% of Canadians said there were too many migrants in the country and cited a lack of affordable housing as the reason they were against the surge.
Trudeau is running for reelection, and experts believe he’s taking a tougher approach to immigration because his opponent, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, is campaigning on the issue.
Kareem El-Assal told Reuters the prime minister’s “chickens are coming home to roost.”
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