OTTAWA—Two-thirds of Canadians want prospective immigrants to be screened for “anti-Canadian” values, a new poll reveals, lending support to an idea that is stirring controversy in political circles.

Conservative MP Kellie Leitch, a candidate in her party’s leadership contest, has floated the idea of screening newcomers for their attitudes on intolerance toward other religions, cultures and sexual orientations and reluctance to embrace Canadian freedoms.

A new Forum Research Inc. poll for the Star shows that Leitch may be tapping into an idea that Canadians favour with 67 per cent saying immigrants should indeed be screened for “anti-Canadian values.”

More importantly for Leitch, the poll shows that the idea is especially popular among Conservative supporters with 87 per cent backing the idea and just 8 per cent opposed compared to 57 per cent support among Liberals and 59 per cent for New Democrat voters.

That’s certain to be the reason that Leitch (Simcoe-Grey) proposed the idea — and has stuck by it in the face of criticism, said Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research.

“If you’re going after the base, this is like red meat for them. They’re going to love this,” he said Friday. “This is hitting the nail right on the head.”

When asked to choose the values respondents believe are important, equality came out on top (27 per cent), followed by patriotism (15 per cent), fairness (12 per cent) and tolerance (11 per cent).

Conservative backers put patriotism at the top their list of important values. Liberals and New Democrats ranked equality as their first choice.

Just one-quarter of respondents disagreed with the idea of screening for values and nine per cent had no opinion.

The idea finds most support among those ages 45 to 64 (73 per cent); more men (70 per cent) than women (64 per cent); living in Quebec (71 per cent) and Ontario (70 per cent) than those in the Atlantic provinces (56 per cent).

Leitch raised the idea of screening would-be immigrants in a survey sent out by her campaign seeking input on issues.

But it has drawn flak, even from among Conservatives, who have sought to distance themselves from Leitch’s stance. Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose said she doesn’t support the idea. Fellow Ontario MP Michael Chong, also contesting the leadership, said the suggestion that some immigrants are anti-Canadian “does not represent our Conservative party or our Canada.”

In Conservative circles, there are fears it could be damaging to the party brand, stirring memories of the controversial “barbaric cultural practices” snitch line that Leitch unveiled during the last federal election campaign.

And although Leitch’s proposal may play well among Conservative supporters, Bozinoff said, it could undermine the party’s efforts to broaden its support.

“They build these huge walls around themselves like a stockade and barricade themselves in and make it hard for anyone to join them,” he said.

Ryerson University Prof. Myer Siemiatycki condemned Leitch’s idea as “wrong-headed, cynical, and unfortunately dangerous” for raising suspicions about immigrants for crass political purposes.

He said it’s unworkable with questions about who exactly would define what Canadian values are and how immigrants would be tested. And he asked whether Canadians would be held to the same standard.

“Is Kellie Leitch going to decide for all of Canada what our core values are?” said Siemiatycki, founding director of Ryerson’s graduate program in immigration and settlement studies.

Despite the criticism, Leitch is not backing away from the idea. Screening potential immigrants on their values “is a policy proposal that I feel very strongly about,” she said.

“Oftentimes, debating and discussing these complex policies requires tough conversations,” Leitch said this month after questions were raised.

In explaining why the idea has broad support even outside Conservative circles, Bozinoff said phrasing it as a test for “anti-Canadian” values was cleverly done.

“How can you disagree with that? I think that’s a brilliant way of framing this issue. . . . I think that’s what’s also boosting these numbers,” he said.

The poll also showed that more than a third of Canadians think the country admits too many immigrants (38 per cent) while 13 per cent say too few are admitted. But 41 per cent think the number of admission is about right.

Six in 10 Canadians think immigrants should abandon their native cultural values when they conflict with Canadian cultural values, the poll found.

And it showed that although almost 60 per cent of Canadians would prohibit one or more articles of Islamic clothing, an equal percentage of respondents agree that the state has no business telling women how to dress.

Still, Bozinoff said there’s no strong anti-immigration attitude in Canada similar to the kind that fuelled Britain’s vote to exit the European Union, or what has been at play in the U.S. presidential race.

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Still, he noted there is a “fear of the foreign” here, spurred by violent outbreaks around the world and what are perceived as unsettling changes here at home.

“It’s changing a little bit different than how they remember it and they are uncertain about that,” Bozinoff said.

Siemiatycki agreed that debates and events around the world, such as the crisis of Syrian refugees, have put the issue of immigration in the spotlight.

“We are in an extraordinarily challenging time of migration movement and it’s serving up both tremendous examples of generosity, altruism, openness at the same time it also generates . . . concerns, fears,” he said.

But he cautioned about reading too much into the poll findings, saying Canadians continue to hold a positive view toward immigration.

“Ironically, I think you could say that’s a core Canadian value, that the country was built by immigrants, that immigrants should be welcomed,” he said.

As for the Conservative race, Bozinoff said the question now is how Leitch’s competitors will react.

He said they are no doubt mindful of the Republican race for the presidential nomination in the U.S., where contender Donald Trump repeatedly made controversial statements — and still emerged on top.

“There seems to be more tolerance now for saying things that you normally wouldn’t say,” he said.

“The others got to think about that. They have to have just seen what happened in the States when someone takes (what) I’ll say is an extreme position and no one wants to tangle with it,” Bozinoff said.

Forum polled 1,370 Canadians 18 and older on Sept. 6 and 7 using an interactive voice response survey. Results on the total sample are considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Where appropriate, results of the survey have been statistically weighted by age, region and other variables to ensure the sample reflects the actual population according to the latest census data.

Forum houses its results in the data library of the University of Toronto’s political science department.

More on thestar.com:

Candidates like Kellie Leitch usually find there is a low ceiling to their support: Paul Wells

Kellie Leitch's Trumpian immigration plan could work for her: Walkom

Limited market for Kellie Leitch’s screening proposal: Hébert

Jason Kenney dismisses Leitch’s ‘anti-Canadian values’ screening proposal for immigrants

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