Canada immigration policy: Why Trudeau’s confession failed to soothe public anger

Even after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s admission of making "mistakes" with the immigration policy, the citizens of Canada seem to be in no mood to forgive him. His acknowledgement hasn’t eased the concerns of citizens who feel the government’s errors have led to complications and uncertainties in the whole immigration process.

Trudeau’s ‘confession’ comes amid the Liberal Party’s waning popularity ahead of Canada’s 2025 general election. The video message posted on his YouTube channel invited the wrath of the citizens with several people lashing out at Trudeau’s "lies" and blaming him for the worsening living conditions in the country. 

Canadians pointed out that there had never been a “labour shortage” in the country unlike what he said. 

“I was working as a security guard with experience of 14 years. Extremely disciplined, never came late, always in clean full uniform, during night shifts never slept. My wage never went up with experience. Then came international students were making 1$ lesser than me. Always late, wearing half uniform, barely spoke English, all the time on phone, sleeping at night shifts as they were working other jobs too,” Dave Keller, one of the users, commented under Trudeau's video.

Keller added that when he asked his employer for a raise, the latter said that “20 people are willing to do my position for lesser money”. 

While in some way defending the immigration policy, Trudeau in the video said, after the pandemic, every sector came to us with the same message, “After two years of closed borders, we need more people, more workers and fast. So we brought in more workers. It was the right choice.” He went on to claim that way Canada avoided recession.

Ridiculing Trudeau’s arguments, people echoed that no new opportunities, housing crisis, lack of diversity, exploitation of cheap labour, delay in ensuring healthcare service, overcrowding in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and neglected rising costs. 

“Labor shortage is ONLY because businesses are unwilling to pay anything above minimum wage for a university-educated skilled employee with 10 years experience. The easiest way for businesses is to hire a temporary worker at $15/hour,” another user commented. 

Even Liberal citizens turned their backs and blamed Trudeau for making lives "miserable". “I was a die-hard liberal and faced backlash while living in Alberta. Never again! Your well-scripted YouTube video will do nothing for my 4 daughters, my husband or myself! We lost everything we had worked for with my husband spending over half of our marriage on the "Road" so we could get a little bit ahead,” said a user. 

The list of complaints goes on and citizen’s anger is very evident through these comments. 

Meanwhile, as per the latest immigration strategy, Canada will admit approximately 3,95,000 permanent residents in 2025, marking a 20 per cent drop from the current 4,85,000 expected this year.  

By 2027, Canada will accept just 17,400 new non-permanent residents, the new policy suggested.