Poll shows most Canadians DON'T want to take more refugees

The Canadian meeja -- a generally leftish lot -- have been rabbiting on for three weeks now about the terrible plight of all those poor "refugees" from Syria (and, errr, other places) trying to make their way to Greece, Italy and on to Germany, where the streets are paved with gelt and milk, honey and money are provided by the guilt-ridden herrenvolk.

Canuck political pundits have been falling all over themselves to castigate Prime Minister Steve Harper for not doing more to assist the asylum-seekers to cross the Atlantic and settle in Canada. This is going to be the ballot issue in the upcoming federal election, they say, and Mr. Harpoon's apparent indifference will cost him his job.

That's what they say. But many Canadians, including some of Walt's agents, beg to differ. One of my minions has sent me a copy of an e-mail he wrote to John Ivison, a normally sound columnist for the Notional Pest and regular panelist on CTV's Question Period. He cautioned Mr. Ivison that the breadth and depth of support for the idea of bringing in tens of thousands of asylum-seekers whose bona fides has not been established was not so great as the PC press might think. Answer came there none.

However, our agent's suspicions are now confirmed by two major public opinion polls, reported by the Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente today in "What Canadians really think about the refugee crisis". Ms Wente warns political soothsayers against paying much attention to those who say the Canadian government "is cold, callous and indifferent. Perhaps it is. But it seems that many Canadians wouldn’t have it any other way."

Ms Wente passes on the results of an Ipsos poll, taken over the weekend, which found that despite all the bad publicity, 38% of Canadians still think the Harper Conservatives would "make the best decision for Canada on the Syrian refugee situation." 32% named the NDP, and 30% the Liberals. The Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, has proposed bringing in 25,000 of the new boat people by the end of the year. 61% of those polled think that's a bad idea.

The other poll cited in Ms Wente's column was taken by EKOS, on the 4th through 8th of this month. Only 36% of respondents thought Canada should be taking in more refugees. 25% said too many are already being brought in. 34% the number being admitted is about right. Do that math! Nearly 60% of Canadians don't want to take in more refugees!

Further reading:
"Conservatives’ refugee crisis response far from fatal for Harper", also in today's Globe and Mail.
"Swedish experience shows folly of welcoming unassimilable immigrants" (WWW 13/9/15)