Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reversed course on comments aimed at setting an “aggressive target to double [Alberta’s] population.”
While Canadians struggle with inflated prices and flatlined salaries, the idea sparked a significant backlash from constituents in Alberta who are fed up with mass immigration.
This online backlash caused Premier Smith and her Alberta government to walk back on last week’s comments by saying that Trudeau’s “open border policies are resulting in unsustainable levels of population increase that makes it very difficult for any province, even one as wealthy as Alberta, to keep up leading to shortages in housing, public infrastructure and needed health and education professionals”.
“People are coming to Alberta in record numbers to enjoy the Alberta Advantage in everything from job opportunities to low taxes.”
Unsurprisingly the public backlash on social media was strong. According to polling data gathered by Abacus Data, mass immigration is now a top 5 issue for Canadians, with 26% of the country rating it as one of their top three issues facing the country. At the same time, climate change has fallen to sixth place overall.
A recent poll has even shown that immigrants themselves are frustrated with existing immigration quotas, with many planning to vote Conservative over Liberal.
