Canadians Express Concern Over Immigration Levels, Yet Trust Carney to Repair System
The Liberal party has restored some Canadians’ confidence in its ability to manage immigration, though a majority still believe the Conservatives are better equipped to fix the beleaguered system, according to a new poll.
A year after implementing some seismic policy changes to reduce immigration intakes, the Liberals are closing the gap with the opposition Conservatives in public perception of their ability to handle a system what many view as “broken,” said the Abacus Data survey, published on the eve of the release of Ottawa’s 2026-28 immigration levels plan on Tuesday.
Overall, 38 per cent of Canadians favoured the Conservatives to stickhandle this issue, compared to 29 per cent for the Liberals. However, the Liberals’ score has risen 13 percentage points on that question in the past year while those expressing confidence in the Conservatives only grew by four percentage points, said the poll for the Toronto Star.
“It does show how much (former prime minister Justin) Trudeau affected people’s perceptions,” said David Coletto, Abacus chair and CEO. “Now that he’s gone and the government has continued to follow through on that more restrictive immigration policy, they’ve kind of returned to more of a normal place.” Liberal Mark Carney became prime minister in March.
Rapid population growth as a result of high immigration dominated political debates over the last two years, and public concerns about lagging housing, health care and other social services have prompted the Liberal government to make drastic cuts in the admissions of both permanent and temporary residents, including foreign students and workers. Immigration applicants are also faced with backlogs and long processing times.
While 49 per cent of Canadians — virtually unchanged from 50 per cent last November — continue to view immigration through a negative lens, attitudes have largely stabilized, said Coletto, with 26 per cent of people expressing positive feelings toward immigration in Canada.
Sentiment remains most negative among older Canadians and Conservative voters, while younger Canadians and Liberal supporters are more positive about immigration. Despite the lower permanent resident intake from 500,000 in 2024 to 385,000 this year, 67 per cent of people still said the target is too high; that percentage was down modestly from 72 per cent a year ago.
“Heading into a budget that will set a new immigration plan, the government is navigating a delicate balance,” said Coletto. “Canadians continue to see immigration through the lens of scarcity — too few homes, too much strain on public services, and a labour market that feels stretched. The public pressure is clearly on restraint, not expansion.”
When asked about the impact of immigration, majorities continue to link it to rising housing costs (69 per cent), pressure on health care (60 per cent), and strain on social services (58 per cent), all largely unchanged from 2024. Yet, there are modest declines in the share saying immigration is bad for Canada: 51 per cent now say it makes the country worse off, down from 53 per cent last year.
Canadians still recognize immigration’s benefits. Thirty-five per cent of people said immigrants help fill labour shortages; 26 per cent said they contribute to economic growth; and 24 per cent said they support an aging population.
“I don’t foresee immigration dissipating as an issue that’s salient to a lot of Canadians or getting back on the road to building consensus again on this,” Coletto said.
“This is going to require some of those pain points like housing, access to health care … people need to believe that those things are improving before they are going to be open to welcoming more people into the country again.”
The survey interviewed 2,922 Canadians from Oct. 24 to 29, with a margin of error of 1.81 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender and region.
The Abacus survey findings were consistent with a recent Environics Institute poll that found 56 per cent of Canadians believe the country accepts too many immigrants, declining by two percentage points from last year after a dramatic increase in negative sentiments between 2022 and 2024.
This article was first reported by The Star
