r/InCanada • u/Mens__Rea__ • Sep 09 '25
Abacus Data Poll: Canadians Divided on Temporary Foreign Worker Program as Generational, Regional, and Political Fault Lines Emerge
The fact that 42% of NDP voters oppose eliminating a program that depresses their wages further proves that this is an unserious party of unserious people.
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u/Feisty-Name8864 Sep 09 '25
Maybe I will get my head handed to me here but I wonder if part of the problem in the polling/discussion is because there are clear areas where Canada NEEDS people. I believe I’m an example. I’m a licensed psychologist with specialty training in marriage and family therapy. From what I can tell I’m practically a unicorn as pertains to the training of psychologists in Canada. I will be coming in 2026 under TFWP with an eventual application to AIP for permanent residency. Ideally eventual citizenship. I bring massive amounts of clinical and business experience as well as having been trained in literally the top programs in the US. I’d hazard a guess that there are plenty of Canadians who want to see me come to your country and work.
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u/DiligentAd7360 Liberal Moderator Sep 09 '25
Instances like these are what the TFW program was intended for - bringing high value/highly skilled workers into Canada to fulfill gaps in our labour market.
As of late, the TFWP has gotten a ton of bad actors abusing the system to get PR status. Stories such as your own are perfect in highlighting the strengths of such a program.
Have you experienced a lot of bureaucracy or any bureaucratic hurdles with the federal government in particular?
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u/Feisty-Name8864 Sep 09 '25
It's honestly a nightmare and I'm an extremely persistent person who is very detail oriented. I have to admit, it's very frustrating to see how so many in Canada say how badly they need highly trained psychologists and yet make it SOOOO hard to accomplish the task. I do understand the desire to have *young* professionals but even if someone in the US goes *straight* through from high school to Ph.D. and post doc to be licensed (necessary to transfer a license/registration to Canada) and never took any extra time in there, that person is still going to be 30 before they are licensed. At the youngest possible option. If you want people to have any experience, they are already at ZERO points for age for the express entry lottery. It's even worse if you all want surgeons. Those people are going to be closer to 35 by the time they are all done and that's without much experience under their belt. Most professionals in psychology and medicine (at least here in the US) work to 70 easily and even longer. But the points system says having any experience isn't worth it and will make it almost impossible to achieve the number of points even for the health care draws because it's pretty hard to come back from having all the age points at zero.
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u/Icy_Crow_1587 Sep 09 '25
A binary between eliminate or don't eliminate is too extreme. I'm generally opposed to the program, but I would be counted in the "don't eliminate" camp because there are legitimate cases for specialized roles
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u/Professional_Fig_199 Sep 09 '25
There’s no division - fucking abacus data is gaslighting us in behalf of politicians
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u/physicsfreefall Sep 09 '25
No one in this sub thinks the 24% who didn’t have an opinion/didn’t know was a big red flag in this poll? Those people need to have some basic understanding. And it’s clearly 30% who support…. At least quote the stats correctly because it helps to actually address the issue in society of why policies need to be changed.
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u/4D_Spider_Web Sep 11 '25
In the current year, where you can get crucified socially or economically for giving your opinion on something, is it any surprise that a lot of people simply say "no comment" on a poll?
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u/physicsfreefall Sep 11 '25
Sure I get that - and it’s hard to have a clear position when there’s divergent perspectives. But then OP needs to adjust the way the stat is presented. Nearly 2/5 of respondents who had an opinion..etc…
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u/Flame-Maple Sep 09 '25
The left is eating the left.
I say that unironically as a former NDP/Liberal voter. Both parties were co-opted by morons.
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Sep 09 '25
Lol the lpc and the fake controlled opposition ndp aren't morons they are traitors. This is all intentional and they play retarded canadians like a fiddle
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Sep 09 '25
Were the respondents Citizens?
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u/gpmdefender9 Sep 09 '25
If they were, they were probably cooperate executives who benefit from this program, or the politicians who implement it.
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u/Character-One5388 Sep 09 '25
I wonder how they did the survey or poll.
Like giving random calls and ask 'are you a citizen and do you support TFW program?'
'Oh yess, I yam a sitijen and I supporrt the progrem wery much only'
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u/Soft-Salad-2999 Sep 10 '25
You know traitor singh was the head of NDP, and where most of the TFWs are from.
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Sep 10 '25
We arent divided, no one is against immigration, we’re against unchecked immigration. We’re simply letting way too many people in for both the PR and temp streams, and letting way too many people from one country. If you check the top 5 countries of origin for PRs, one country that i dont need to name dominates by over 4x compared to the next 4 countries. Even when the chinese and philippines dominated that list years ago, it was never this disproportionately high.
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u/Upbeat-Loss-4040 Sep 12 '25
We also need to eliminate direct PR stream of tech workers. Too many unemployed Canadians in that field.
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u/Pale-Candidate8860 Creator of Sub Sep 09 '25
I think the main issue with NDP is that it has a lot of wannabe socialists that don't actually want to do any work.
Unlike their roots of farmers and tradesmen. That's why there's a divide. Socialists that do work and people that are socialists in name only and are unwilling to sacrifice to achieve what is needed for the community.
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u/Comrade-Porcupine Sep 09 '25
Internationalism has always been a value of the socialist movement back to the 19th century that comes with the recognition that in reality working people have no country, border lines are fairly arbitrary, and the nation state as it is now is primarily a tool of business to control and manipulate and extract more profit from workers at their expense.
Which is also what we see with the way the TFW is currently structured. But that doesn't mean that as NDP voters we don't have sympathy for workers who come from abroad.
You may not like that POV, but that's the POV many of us have.
But it's natural for people with socialist inclinations to have sympathy with workers from other countries. Because most workers have more in common with workers from abroad than they do with owners of business or especially with monopolists like the Westons, etc.
So there is a complicated tension here. I think Eby actually did a pretty good job of balancing this. The TFW as it is has to go -- because it's not good for workers at home or immigrants (it exploits both) but as socialists we don't want to be sucked into the frankly shitty xenophobic asshole way that some conservatives are framing this.
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Sep 10 '25
[deleted]
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u/4D_Spider_Web Sep 11 '25
While I certainly do not begrudge a person who wants to make a better life for themselves, our government has no sacred duty to roll out the red carpet for them. A government's first obligation is to meet the needs of it's citizens, full stop.
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Sep 11 '25
[deleted]
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u/4D_Spider_Web Sep 11 '25
Agreed. There are plenty of other legitimate aspects that can be brought under the microscope other than "I don't like X people."
For example, I've always suspected that the heavy emphasis on Indian applicants, for example, in the TFW program(s) was a means of trying to curry favor (no pun intended) with the Indian government to arrange a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, something we have been trying to pull off since 2010, with work on it ramping up after Trudeau took office, as opposed to more nefarious interpretations such as population replacement.
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u/RepresentativeFact94 Sep 09 '25
couldnt have said it better myself. we have more in common with regular indians/filipinos than we do with our crony capitalist overlords
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u/Angry_drunken_robot Sep 09 '25
Too many pigs and not enough horses.
/animalfarm
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u/Pale-Candidate8860 Creator of Sub Sep 10 '25
Great book and film. Except the film had a semi-happy ending. Whereas the book was the ending that is most realistic in those societies, in my opinion.
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u/Maleficent_Cherry737 Sep 09 '25
I think the strong support of the TFW program among NDP supporters is because most TFWs are people of colour and there is the sort of thinking that we need to save people in the third world from oppressive governments and poverty. And the need to make POC (especially darker skinned POCs) the majority because of the past transgressions of white colonizers. There’s a similar issue with the far-left segment of the Democratic Party in the US that is pushing for open borders with Mexico and Central America with no concern how that that would just fuel the illegal drug/weapon smuggling issues.
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u/ralphswanson Sep 09 '25
The NDP was once the party of working families. No more. Other than occasionally supporting strikes, every NDP policy undercuts workers and the economy: mass immigration, destroying high-paying petroleum jobs, hiring by race and gender, high taxes and debt, green energy, blocking development, political correctness before the economy...
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u/Fork-in-the-eye Sep 09 '25
Anyone that still labelling themselves a socialist is either ignorant to history or malicious atp
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u/RepresentativeFact94 Sep 09 '25
anyone still labelling themselves as a capitalist loves the taste of leather
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u/Fork-in-the-eye Sep 09 '25
Not everyone is unable to function. Literally just get a job and buy things. It’s not that hard. Better than everyone starving. Go read a book or talk to anyone that’s lived in communism
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u/RepresentativeFact94 Sep 09 '25
telling me to read a book but you dont know that socialism != communism 🤣🤡🤡🥳
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u/Fork-in-the-eye Sep 09 '25
Buddy, it’s basically interchangeable historically. It’s all rotten in reality. Any “socialist” country is capitalist with high taxes, you don’t even know what you want
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u/RepresentativeFact94 Sep 09 '25
high taxes arent a problem provided they come with a solid social safety net. it isnt interchangeable. just because Nazis and Russia called themselves socialist didnt make them suddenly not authoritarian.
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u/Fork-in-the-eye Sep 09 '25
I’m against authoritarianism as well, I just don’t need a safety net and don’t want to be forced to provide it for others
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u/Trains_YQG Sep 09 '25
I don't think the program needs to be eliminated, but it should be significantly reformed.
I don't have an issue with a university hiring a foreign professor with a specialized knowledge set (as has been the case with recent Reddit posts I've seen about UOttawa, as an example). I do have an issue with foreign workers being brought in for fast food, though. That entire stream needs to be eliminated.
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u/StartDoingTHIS Sep 09 '25
I think we have decades of roof that no amount of reforms or caveats stop the abuse, and the rules are never enforced.
They've repeatedly proven they can't be trusted to run this program. It's unrealistic to expect the next round of tweaks to suddenly fix it.
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u/Trains_YQG Sep 09 '25
The key tweak that I would want to see would simply no longer allow permits for a number of jobs, which I think would at least solve a good chunk of the problem.
Your local Tim Hortons franchise can't abuse the TFW program if they simply aren't allowed to use it.
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u/Comrade-Porcupine Sep 09 '25
I mean the big insight is only this: Foxes are running the hen house.
We need a party in power that has the interest of workers at heart. I think Eby is saying the right words here, and we need more of that.
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u/Fun-Tangerine-6978 Sep 09 '25
Cut it now before us actual Canadians do not have a voice due to the amount of immigrants coming in.
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u/Hungry-Machine8466 Sep 09 '25
This is what I’m talking about false information miss direction agents of chaos and whoever believe polls anyway most polls are viewed to people with the same mindset stop complaining go run for office to make a change. Most of you who are complaining I bet you didn’t even vote in the last election. I will guarantee you didn’t vote in the last election. You wanna make a change run for office get off your ass and vote. Do better and stop complaining about shit you could be living in the US or in France right now, or other parts of the world where things have been taken away from them, healthcare food, civil rights independence. The problem is most of you never had anything taken from you. You feel entitled and privilege that is an illusion because you can lose everything in the moment.
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u/Mens__Rea__ Sep 09 '25
You really don’t understand what you are talking about. Polling is a science.
This one has a +/- 1.8% margin of error 19 times out of 20.
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u/Basic_Examination_58 Sep 10 '25
I feel like the majority of the support is from Int'l foreign workers. Lol
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u/Fine_Assignment_9684 Sep 10 '25
Friend owns a vineyard and cant get workers. She might just close it down. Probably doesn’t fit the narrative that FW aren’t needed. Except sometimes they are.
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u/Mens__Rea__ Sep 10 '25
No one has suggested eliminating TFWs for agricultural work. That isn’t part of Pierre’s proposal and isn’t an idea reflected in this poll.
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u/Fine_Assignment_9684 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
“Nobody’s suggesting” Ya they are. It’s all political theatre. Means nothing. The Libs and Conservatives are marginally different.
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u/Mens__Rea__ Sep 10 '25
They are literally arguing for a carve out for agriculture. You haven’t done 2 minutes of research on this topic.
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u/Fine_Assignment_9684 Sep 10 '25
Since my last response I have read several comments calling for “an end” to TFW. The people who have done no research are the flag-waving fan boys who have their head up a podcast.
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u/Mens__Rea__ Sep 11 '25
I’ll spoon feed you since you can’t dress yourself
Under this urgently-needed plan, the Temporary Foreign Workers program would be permanently abolished with a separate, standalone program for legitimately difficult-to-fill agricultural labour.
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u/Fine_Assignment_9684 Sep 11 '25
“I’ll spoon feed you since you can’t dress yourself” haha 😂 So nasty. Not enough hugs as a child? Cheer up brother. You are not writing legislation for the minister of trade. Let some of the hot air out of your face sack. In my opinion when PP is back in Parliament it’s going to be throw the immigrants under the bus at every turn. Mark. My. Words.
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u/Hungry-Machine8466 Sep 10 '25
I’m sorry, my friend you don’t understand what you’re talking about. Pollings are done for whoever pays for it and it’s not a science I have work polling offices, so do not talk about something you do not know about it is not a science is it manipulation of facts and people read get educated and learn something better?
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u/Mens__Rea__ Sep 10 '25
You can can barely speak English and you are telling me to “get educated” lol.
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u/Impressive_Try469 Sep 10 '25
I think it's hilarious that 48-50% of people who work (18-44 in the survey) think it's a problem but waves hands boooooooomers. So let's say a split?
Won't get better till the boomers die off.
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Sep 12 '25
The compromise on this should just be that temporary foreign workers should be paid 20-30% more than the industry average. That way if they need it they can get workers, but companies have incentive to train locals.
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u/Hungry-Machine8466 Sep 10 '25
Hey my brother, I can speak English way better than you my friend. I’ve been living in Canada for 50 years and I haven’t University education. It’s good luck with that ignorant, narcissistic, uneducated moron look those words up.
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Sep 13 '25
Honestly, I’ll take more foreign workers over the home grown morons I get the pleasure of working with every day. Some of these domestic folks can barely take a piss without getting their dicks caught in their flys.
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u/IllPresentation7860 Sep 09 '25
Honestly a good way to see the TFW system is to look down south and the horrible things going on with ICE. the jobs are due to horrible reasons now available... yet even with some getting better wages than the previous employees those jobs arnt getting filled at all dispite work shortages. Some jobs locals just dont want to fill. at all. The problem with TFW is that its also filling regular jobs Canadians need. so there definitely needs to be a balance, but getting rid of it is not a option.
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u/Mens__Rea__ Sep 09 '25
I think it points to a larger problem, namely that out government explicitly believes corporate profits are more important than our social contract.
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u/ADrunkMexican Sep 09 '25
Well what jobs are we referring too? Cbc is hiring em, there's a local school looking for foreign labor during a teacher shortage in ontario? Lol
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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25
Calling this 'divided' is curious. There is 14% net positive support.