‘Huge implications’: Trump election highlights possible B.C. immigration impacts

In the leadup to his election victory, Donald Trump announced a variety of policies that could have a potential impact on Canada, including a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S.

“That has huge implications for Canada,” Terri Givens, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia told Global News.

“You’re going to start seeing more asylum seekers coming to Canada immediately.

“I expect to see a surge in people, you know, instead of coming to the U.S. or leaving the U.S. and wanting to declare asylum in Canada.”

1:49 Trump’s election impact on Canada’s border

Speaking on Wednesday, Canadian government officials say they have a “plan” to ensure the country’s border security and control over who comes into the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government is focused on Canada’s border and the potential impacts of what could come next.

“What’s important for Canadians is to control our own border and that is something that’s really important, it’s fundamental,” she said.

“I do want to assure Canadians that we absolutely recognize the importance of border security and of controlling our own border, of controlling who comes into Canada and who doesn’t.”

2:13 How will Trump election win affect Russia-Ukraine, Middle East wars?

In a statement, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told Global News, “We are a country that has demonstrated that we can successfully manage our relationship with the United States, our neighbour and principle strategic partner. We will continue to keep the interests of Canada at heart as we work with the incoming administration in the months to come.

“Over the last 18 months, Minister Miller has worked to ensure that we have an immigration system that enables safe and orderly migration, refugee protection, and border security.”

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The organization said it will continue to prepare and anticipate all possible scenarios and any approach taken will be first and foremost in the best interest of Canada and its citizens.

4:04 Trudeau, world leaders react as Trump wins U.S. election, becomes president-elect

Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., said he thinks they will see a similar situation to what happened after 9/11.

“The Bush administration was attempting to register all Muslim migrants who were in the United States and those who were out of status for one reason or another, fled north to try to get into Canada” he said.

“So there were large numbers of people at various shelters and other facilities up on the northern border heading into Canada. And the scale of this could be much larger. The rules have changed, so the reception in Canada is likely to be quite different. But yes, I expect a similar surge, probably even before… President-elect Trump is inaugurated because he’s been so clear about his plan.”

Alden said the threat of mass deportations does cause a certain degree of panic.

“So I think the threat alone will generate a response,” he said.

“Deporting millions of people is no routine undertaking. But the president-elect has made it clear that he’s going to expand resources in whatever ways he can, deploying National Guard and others, building tent cities, trying to increase the number of removals substantially. It’ll take a long time to get into anything that approaches millions, but there’ll be a lot of disruption on the way. There’s no question.”

5:06 Harris addresses U.S. after losing election to Trump: ‘We must accept the results’

The B.C. business community is also reacting to the news that Donald Trump has won another presidential election.

“It’s an America-first economic vision that Trump has been proposing throughout his campaign, and it’s one that does not necessarily bode well for free trade,” Tyler Orton with Business in Vancouver told Global News.

“This is based on Trump’s own intentions to implement wide-ranging tariffs. Greater Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Bridget Anderson says she’s concerned about the province’s economy combined with labour issues at the ports (and) Canada Post. She says we need to be focused on stable supply chains, trade and investments. Otherwise, we’re just going to be a bit of a small player on the global realm when it comes to free trade here.”

Orton said former premier Christy Clark said she is also concerned about the free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which is up for review and renewal in 2026.

“If it doesn’t go forward with a renewal, we’re going to be facing a wide range of protectionist measures, including tariffs as well,” Orton said.

Givens said what happened in the U.S. on election day showed the divide in the country but also showed that many did not appear to vote at all.

“Trust me, my political science colleagues and I are going to be analyzing these numbers,” she said.

“And, you know, we need to make sure we know kind of what the final numbers overall happen to be. But I can tell you for sure, we’re going to be looking at this up, down, sideways, backwards, forwards to see what was really going on here.”

3:14 Canadian leaders react to Donald Trump’s re-election

Paul Quirk, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia said the polls before election day showed the race was very close but that was a significant error.

‘That is, Trump outperformed the polls,” he said.

“That kind of error is not especially unusual. What from a longer-term perspective, it’s surprising, I think, because it’s hard to understand how so many people supported a candidate who was rejected by many of the top people in his prior administration who said that he was unfit for office and a danger to democracy and so forth. So the reasons for his support are, to some degree puzzling.”

It is unclear how Trump’s win could influence the Canadian federal election next year but Quirk said it could worry some Canadians.

“I would kind of think that the election of a candidate is so extreme as Trump is going to worry a lot of people and have somewhat of a backlash effect,” he said.

“So I kind of think it would help liberals more than conservatives. It’s similar to what happens in congressional elections in the midterms. There’s a reaction against whoever it was that was elected president. And if Canada is influenced by the presidential election, I think it’d be similar to the reaction against, you know, reaction going in the opposite direction.”

— with files from Sean Previl