When Mark Gravoso arrived in Canada from the Philippines in 2017, he thought it would be a matter of months before he could start working as a registered nurse. He ended up waiting four years to obtain his licence, forcing him to take what he calls “survival jobs” to get by.
As the next federal election approaches, Gravoso, a first-time voter, shared why he will support the Conservative Party led by Pierre Poilievre.
“[The federal Liberals] should have focused their attention on the health care system,” he told OMNI News. “There are a lot of health care professionals, like foreign-trained doctors and foreign-trained nurses, but they are not utilized properly.”
Like him, seven in 10 newcomers say they are motivated to vote and believe it is time for a change in government in Canada, according to a new poll commissioned by Leger exclusively for OMNI News.
The survey found 45 per cent of immigrants have changed their political allegiances since moving to Canada, particularly those who say they intend to vote Conservative.
Support for the Tories is stronger among newcomers who have been in Canada for six years or longer, but overall, 44 per cent of respondents said they would cast their ballot for the Conservatives if elections were held today—an 18-point lead over the Liberals, at 26 per cent, while 19 per cent would vote NDP.
“Newcomers to Canada tend to vote for the party in power at that time,” said Manan Gupta, who moved to Ontario from India over 20 years ago.
“But when you look at those who have been here for longer,” he told OMNI News. “They can actually compare previous parties’ governance and economic situations at that time.”
Dissatisfaction driving political allegiance shift
Jenny Yang moved to British Columbia from China six years ago, and while she told OMNI News that she hasn’t made up her mind yet on who to vote for, she expressed concern about the government’s handling of crucial files.
“Housing prices have been rising rapidly,” she said. “And the government hasn’t come up with effective measures to control this problem.”
The OMNI-Leger poll found that dissatisfaction with the current government tops the list of reasons newcomers gave for changing their political allegiance, followed by poor immigration policies.
However, a lack of clarity in the Conservatives’ plan for immigration is the reason Filipino-Canadian Allan Ralph Basa is dissatisfied with the Tories.
“Their approach on immigration is just ‘common sense.’ We deserve more than that,” he told OMNI News. “We need to know because immigration has become a very serious, pivotal concern and issue in this coming election.”
Basa came to Canada in 2012, and in 2015, he voted for former Prime Minister Stephen Harper against Justin Trudeau. This time, he will again vote for the incumbent, even if that means switching sides.
Guess who’s coming for dinner?
However, regarding political leaders, immigrants, particularly those in Canada for more than six years, would instead share a meal with Poilievre than Trudeau or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
The OMNI-Leger poll found that while 28 per cent of those surveyed do not know which federal leader they would invite to dinner, 26 per cent would like to break bread with Poilievre, compared to just two in 10 that would choose the current Prime Minister.
Andrew Ennes, Executive Vice-President with Leger, found the data somewhat surprising.
“The immigrant population is picking up on many of the same concerns and sentiments that Canadians writ large are picking up on,” he told OMNI News.
And with immigrants making up a significant share of the population in key battleground ridings, the pollster says it will be “very challenging for a political party to forsake the immigrant vote in a general federal election and expect to do very well.”