FIRST READING: The provincial revolt against immigration - National Post
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a rally with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (right) in Red Deer County, Alberta on Photo by Friday, October 16, 2026. PHOTO BY JAMES MACLENNAN /PostmediaArticle contentFirst Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.
In just the last month, two provinces have come out hard against Ottawa’s immigration agenda, promising to actively obstruct the Carney government’s pledge to once again hike targets.
In a Monday vote, Albertans overwhelmingly rejected an option to hold a binding referendum on secession, but voted “yes” on four ballot questions about constraining immigration.
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This included questions on restricting migrant access to health care, voting, public schools and social benefits. Albertans also endorsed a proposal for Alberta to take “increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels.”
In a meeting between Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney held just before the referendum vote, she emphasized the changing provincial mood on immigration.
“I have bad news for you, prime minister, all of the premiers are interested in talking about immigration and how we will be able to reform it,” she said.
Meanwhile, in Quebec, the province just elected immigration skeptic Paul St-Pierre Plamondon as its new Parti Québécois premier.
The PQ campaign platform pledged to bring in the sharpest immigration controls in Canada, including an immediate halving of the number of permanent immigrants entering the province.
In 2025, 60,132 permanent immigrants were admitted into Quebec. The PQ has promised to slash this to 35,000.
All the while, St-Pierre Plamondon is on record attributing social ills such as rising crime to poor migrant integration, and is even known to accuse Ottawa of succumbing to “open borders postnationalism.”
And St-Pierre Plamondon heads up a minority government where the balance of power may well be held by a newly elected caucus of Quebec Conservatives, who toes an even harder line on immigration.
“We have a prime minister in Canada who wants to raise immigration … He seems nostalgic for the Trudeau era when we lost control of immigration,” Quebec Conservative Leader Eric Duhaime said in a French-language reaction to the Alberta referendum results.
He added, “I think there are concerns in Alberta which are also found in Quebec.”
CPQ leader Eric Duhaime in Ottawa on May 7, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable /PostmediaArticle contentQuebec, unlike any other province, has been able to set its own immigration targets since 1991.
Provincial control over immigration was one of the tenets of the 1987 Meech Lake Accord, a package of Constitutional amendments negotiated by the government of then-prime minister Brian Mulroney.
