Mr Speaker: The changing nature of parliamentary debates on immigration in Canada

Abstract

We use correspondence analysis to look at the changing nature of political debates in the Canadian House of Commons concerning immigration over a five-decade period. Using data drawn from the Linked Parliamentary Data (LiPaD) project we assess the way in which immigration policy and issues are discussed by different political parties from September of 1968 to June of 2019. We look at debates in five of the longest Prime Ministers’ mandates. In doing so, we trace changes in both emphasis and rhetoric by political party. We find that party political views on immigration became more polarized with the breakup of the Progressive Conservative party in the early 1990s. Liberal party views moved toward to the left of the spectrum while the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party of Canada parties moved toward the right and became increasingly entrenched until 2015. After that, the Conservatives and the Liberals moved closer to the centre. The New Democratic Party was the most consistent in its views over time, focusing on issues of humanitarianism as well as broad policy issues.