Carney hails Toronto’s immigrant majority as a “Canadian success story”
Prime Minister Mark Carney is applauding Toronto’s growing immigrant population, calling the city a model for Canada’s future.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is applauding Toronto’s growing immigrant population, calling the city a model for Canada’s future.
In an interview published Thursday by Toronto Life, Carney highlighted that more than half of the Greater Toronto Area’s residents were born outside of Canada.
“As you know, virtually half of the people in the greater GTA were born outside of this country,” Carney said. “You wouldn’t know, you wouldn’t know because they quickly become Canadian or enriched by them, and it’s true of our country as a whole.”
According to the 2021 census, 46.6 per cent of Toronto’s population was foreign-born. Government labour data from the same year showed immigrants accounted for 49 per cent of the city’s employed residents.
Carney framed the demographic shift as a strength, arguing that immigration continues to benefit Canada socially and economically.
The comments come as the federal government maintains high immigration targets — a policy that has sparked debate amid rising concerns over housing affordability and infrastructure pressure in major cities. Carney was slammed by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre during the lead-up to April’s federal election for appointing Mark Wiseman — a mass immigration advocate and co-founder of the Century Initiative — to his Canada-U.S. relations council.