Popular support for more immigration has cratered. Politicians are taking note

Canada’s large immigrant population has long been regarded as a virtue — but new data suggests popular opinion on adding more newcomers has gone through a seismic shift after years of explosive growth.

For much of the last 25 years, immigration was something of a third rail in Canadian politics, with few elected officials publicly questioning its value. On that issue, too, there’s been a major about-face.

At the Liberal caucus retreat in Edmonton this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney put the immigration system on notice, saying recent levels have not been “sustainable” and a more “focused” approach is required. “It’s clear that we must improve our overall immigration policies,” he said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is going further than he has in the past, calling for “very hard caps,” blasting the Liberals for taking in “too many, too quickly” while demanding the temporary foreign worker program be scrapped altogether.

B.C. Premier David Eby, a New Democrat, is also blaming what he calls Ottawa’s flawed immigration policies for filling up homeless shelters and food banks in his province.

Recent public opinion data can help explain why politicians are making such a hard pivot.

A survey from Nanos Research published this week found nearly three-quarters of Canadian respondents now support reducing the number of new immigrants.

Abacus Data, another polling firm, has also been tracking the crumbling support. What was once a relatively marginal political issue has climbed up the list of national priorities. Nearly a third of voters surveyed this month said immigration is one of their top-three issues.

That data follows earlier findings from the Environics Institute, which reported roughly six in 10 Canadians say too many immigrants are coming in — a 31 percentage point swing in just three years’ time and one of the highest levels recorded since the firm started asking that question in 1977.

“It’s almost like whiplash in terms of how fast public opinion changed on that question. Think…