Two-thirds of Canadians say border crossings have reached ‘crisis’ levels

Despite the Liberal government’s attempts to downplay the issue of thousands of asylum seekers crossing into Canada from the United States, the majority of Canadians say the phenomenon has reached crisis levels, according to a new public opinion survey.

The survey by the Angus Reid Institute finds two-thirds of Canadians (67 per cent) call the current situation a “crisis.”

Furthermore, nearly two out of three Canadians (65 per cent) say Canada has received “too many” irregular crossers for the country’s authorities and service providers to handle.

Ralph Goodale, the federal minister for public safety, has called the situation a “challenge” but has argued that the government is able to handle it.

“I was struck by the level of intensity that Canadians are feeling about this issue,” said Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute. “And we know because we have been tracking it over the last 18 months that it’s a situation and an issue that Canadians have been showing a lot of concern and anxiety about.”

The poll — which was conducted between July 25-30 based on interviews with 1,500 members of the institute’s online panel — suggests that the border issue is resonating with Canadians.

Seven out of ten respondents to the poll said they were either “following it in the news and discussing it with friends and family” or “seeing some media coverage and having the odd conversation.”

But despite the high level of interest, when asked to estimate how many people have crossed outside an official point of entry since 2017, almost half (48 per cent) of Canadians overestimated the number at more than 50,000. The actual number is closer to 31,000.

“Even when we tell them the actual correct number, that doesn’t have a big impact about how they’re feeling about the matters,” Kurl said.

In further bad news for the Liberals, these views are held not only by conservative-minded individuals, but also by more than half of those who voted for the Liberal and New Democratic parties in 2015, the poll finds, revealing a potential Achilles Heel for the governing Liberals in the next year’s election.

In fact, most Canadians, including sizeable segments of past left-leaning voters, say they trust Conservative leader Andrew Scheer more than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to deal with this file.

“This very clearly shows that the Trudeau government has both a communications problem and an operational problem with the border crossers,” Kurl said.

The recent addition of former Toronto police chief Bill Blair to cabinet as minister responsible for border security has yet to sway public opinion in favour of the Liberals.

“Weeks of questions and criticism from opposition politicians and provincial leaders about asylum-seekers crossing the border – an issue already the source of heightened anxiety and concern for Canadians – have taken a further toll on the Trudeau government’s perceived ability to manage the situation,” the report says.

In addition, six-in-ten (58 per cent) say Canada is “too generous” to those crossing the border irregularly. Most Canadians would rather focus on border monitoring and security than on accommodating these new arrivals, the report says.