Blaming immigrants for Canada’s structural ills is a well-known scapegoat tactic of bigotry and the far right—and it’s taking root and spreading.

BY ERICA IFILL The Hill Times July 15, 2026

The diversification of Canada seems to piss off Pierre Poilievre and his Conservative Party.

Poilievre is the politician through which far-right views are laundered to make them palatable to the mainstream. His penchant for blaming immigrants for Canada’s structural ills is a well-known scapegoat tactic of bigotry and the far right; it has been used time and time again throughout history as a way to direct public anger deriving from economic anxieties towards powerless people whose only crime was existing. Let’s make one thing clear: immigrant is code for “non-white.” Hatred of immigrants in Canada is on the rise, making the navigation of everyday life in this country treacherous for non-white people.

At the end of last year, the University of Toronto Mississauga published its research on anti-immigrant sentiment in Canada, finding, “High rents and limited home ownership prospects, combined with negative statements by politicians and related media coverage, may be leading young people to link immigration to their economic concerns.” The authors of the report, Randy Besco and Natasha Goel, point out that, in contrast to the last shift in immigration sentiment (occurring in the 1990s and 2000s and trended positively towards new Canadians), this one found in 2023-24 data was remarkable for three reasons: “First, it was primarily an anglophone phenomenon, with francophone and Quebec respondents showing less movement. Second, the gender gap has flipped: previously, men were more supportive [of immigration] but now women are. Third, the role of age has reversed: in the past older people were more likely to say there is too much immigration, but now it is young people espousing that view.”

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Besco and Goel note that overall anti-immigrant sentiment had ballooned, but the gender gap between those who strongly agree with the statement that there are too many immigrants “was eight percentage points (men 37, women 29), compared to just two years earlier when it was only two percentage points (men 14, women 12). For most of the period before 2015, the gap was three to four percentage points, but in the other direction, with women more opposed” to immigration.

Poilievre has attracted young men to his cause, causing a gender gap in his support that expanded in the last federal election. His parroting of manosphere views (his promotion of traditional values, as an example), commitment to “anti-wokeness,” and his Jordan Peterson affiliation has made him a beacon of right-wing nationalism in mainstream politics against those he deems unfit for Canada.

Don’t take my word for it. “Statements by politicians may be partially to blame, said Besco, pointing to federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre’s criticism of Liberal immigration policy as an example.”

While Poilievre can deny it all day long, he is the articulation between right-wing immigrant hate and the laundering of that anti-immigrant hate in the mainstream. A 2024 CBC News report quoted Poilievre speaking to an audience in Winnipeg: “It’s very simple math. If you have more families coming than you have housing for them, it’s going to inflate housing prices.” That is blaming immigrants for the housing crisis.

Last September, the Canadian Press reported that “former immigration minister Marc Miller said Poilievre’s comments were meant to rally ‘anti-immigrant sentiments.’” However, the Liberals have no leg to stand on since they jumped on the anti-immigrant hate train even-and-straight with the Conservatives with policy. Last year’s Bill C-2 showed that they, too, can stoke anti-immigrant sentiment by targeting a particular vulnerable set—refugees—in a bid to consolidate power. For The Guardian, I wrote: “The legislation changes the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to grant the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship extensive powers to cancel immigration documents, and to suspend or cancel intake in any immigration stream if a high number of applications are pending.”

That bill was eventually abandoned but repackaged as C-12, which became law this past spring.

The Liberals have also reduced the number of temporary foreign workers (everyone’s punching bag), and lowered immigration targets—so much so that Canada had zero population growth last year, and looks on track to deliver the same result this year. In typical two-faced Liberal politics, the correct things are said while the opposite is put into public policy, thereby allowing themselves to look like the saviours while playing cards with the devil.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is worldwide as Canada doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and Poilievre would never have been as effective if the mainstream press didn’t regurgitate his views with little pushback. What is clear is that not looking Canadian (i.e., white) is a scarier existence by the day in a country where politicians and media paint a target on your back.

Source: https://www.hilltimes.com/2026/07/15/when-keeping-it-real-canadian-goes-wrong/511783/