Toronto: The two front-runners to form the next Canadian government both made it clear that the country’s immigration curbs will continue for the near future.
This was alluded to by Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Mark Carney and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre during the official French-language debate in Montreal on Wednesday.
Carney said, “The system isn’t working, especially after the pandemic. Our population has gone up at about three per cent because of immigration and that’s why we need to have cap for a certain period of time.” He said that cap would remain in place for a “couple of years”.
“The system isn’t working,” he remarked.
Poilievre also wanted to reduce intake of newcomers, as he said, “I think we should go back to immigration levels that the population never grows faster than the number of houses, jobs or healthcare available.”
The debate was dominated by the shadow of US President Donald Trump and his threats, including those of tariffs, against Canada.
“He respects force. He respects people who know how the world works and how the private sector works,” Carney said. The PM said Canada needed “new reliable partnerships around the world”.
Poilievre pointed to expanding Canada’s capacity to take its natural resources including energy to countries beyond the US. In that context, he said, “If we export our liquefied natural gas to India, to replace coal, that could reduce emissions in India by 2.5 billion tonnes. That’s three times the emissions of all of Canada.”
The Conservative leader attacked Carney for the policies of the government, saying, “No one can control the decisions of Donald Trump. But we can control our domestic economy by reversing the economic policies that the Liberals brought in that weakened our economy.”
That was another threat running through the debate as opposition leader linked Carney to the unpopular Government for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Poilievre said Carney was “just like Justin Trudeau”, adding, “We need change.”
Carney replied, “I’m not Justin Trudeau.” He earlier stressed, “I’ve just started,” after Poilievre accused him of seeking a “fourth Liberal term”.
As current polls stand, the Liberals have more than 40% support and appear en route to a potential majority government, while the Conservative are near 40% but likely to fall short of returning to power in Ottawa.
Also present on the stage were Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet and Jagmeet Singh of the New Democratic Party, both of which are polling in single digits.
While a lot of the debate was devoted to the Francophone province of Quebec, there was only a brief discussion about international affairs, focusing mainly on the situation in Gaza and Ukraine.
While Singh demanded Carney acknowledge the situation in Gaza was a “genocide”, Carney said while it was “horrific”, he was not going to “politicise” it by using that term.
The final of the two official debates, in English, will be held on Thursday evening in Montreal.
Canada will vote on April 28.
