The former Liberal immigration minister responsible for accepting the most immigrants in Canada’s history will be running for re-election, reversing an earlier decision to retire from politics.
Liberal incumbent Sean Fraser will run for re-election in Central Nova after previously backing out of politics in Dec. 2024.
Canadians know Fraser as the immigration minister who was responsible for letting an unprecedented amount of immigrants into Canada and setting the controversial 500,000-a-year target for the Trudeau Liberals.
Fraser was the Liberal’s immigration minister between 2021 and 2023. By 2023, 2.2 million immigrants, including those holding temporary visas were entering Canada annually.
While being in charge of Canada’s immigration system, Fraser set historical records for how many permanent and temporary immigrants Canada accepted in one year. In 2021, Fraser celebrated granting 401,000 new permanent residencies.
“This is a historic moment for our country, as we welcome the highest number of newcomers in one year in our history,” said Fraser at the time.
Fraser then outdid himself in 2022 (431,000) and 2023 (472,000), surpassing historical immigration records yet again for permanent residencies.
Fraser was then shuffled off by the Liberals into the role of Canada’s housing minister where he denied that immigration was contributing to the housing crisis and that the record levels would actually solve housing shortages. By 2023, Canada was taking in five times more immigrants than housing starts.
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney recently came under fire for appointing Mark Wiseman, the co-founder of a controversial mass immigration lobbying group, to his council of advisors on Canada-U.S. relations before calling the election.
Wiseman’s Century Initiative is a mass immigration lobbying group that advocates increasing the Canadian population to 100 million by 2100 through open border policies.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has opposed the century initiative, pledging to return to “common sense” immigration levels.
Carney was questioned about Fraser’s return at an unrelated press conference. He acted unsure of whether Fraser had confirmed he would be rejoining the race.
However, Fraser announced on Facebook several hours later that Carney had called and asked him to join the party.
“There is too much at stake in this election for me to be comfortable sitting on the sidelines,” said Fraser, citing the tariff war with the United States.
Fraser said Carney assured him that he will have a better work-life balance this time so he can spend more time with his family.
Graham Murray was previously acclaimed to Central Nova just four days before Fraser announced he would be taking over.
True North reached out to Murray but received no comment.
Fraser will be running against Conservative Candidate Brycen Jenkins, a welding inspector, real estate agent, and volunteer firefighter. The NDP candidate for Central Nova is Jesiah MacDonald, an LGBTQ advocate.