Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s opponents quickly accused him Thursday of once again trying to whip up public safety fears ahead of the October. 19 vote.
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Following a few weeks of delay, the process was eventually restarted after no threats were found.
Still, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said Tuesday that Harper was “shamefully ignorant of the facts”. Mr. Harper’s spent his burning those bridges. “He had already done that before he appeared before us to emote talking about his own family after seeing the body of that little child on that beach in Turkey”.
While slumping fortunes in Quebec have been the NDP’s biggest problem, it has not been helped by a surprisingly good campaign by Trudeau and by a well-defined but nearly grossly cynical campaign by Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. He called the interference by the PMO “egregious”. Harper denied that any political staff were involved in the selection of refugees.
In this federal election, the middle stretch of the campaign has seen an emphasis on citizenship and immigration, but mostly with negative connotations: the presence of niqabs at ceremonies where immigrants become Canadians and the revocation of citizenship for foreign-born Canadians convicted of serious offences. The Conservatives have pledged to grow that to 10,000 by 2017.
I embrace this strategic voting because the downside of another Conservative majority government vastly outweighs the upside of any particular opposition party winning.
“As a result of the halt, and the additional layers of scrutiny, families that had fled Syria and were judged by the United Nations refugee agency to be in need of resettlement had to wait longer to find refuge in Canada”, the newspaper reported. “It’s a political issue that is obviously working well for the prime minister”, he said.
Part of the NDP’s previous rise can be attributed to its firm stand against the government surveillance law C-51, in contrast to the tepid support the Liberals gave the Conservative-backed measure. “It’s normal for our country to condemn the practices of Saudi Arabia”, he said, “but at the same time, we have to create employment for our workers here – you have to do both”.
As a serious contender for the White House, her stance casts much doubt on the future of a deal that still faces months of intense debate in the USA before it can be ratified.
“Justin Trudeau wouldn’t dare raise corporate taxes – I will”, he said.
Mulcair told the crowd that “Canadians are ready for change”.
So the toxic issues that were supposed to defeat the Conservatives (the Senate, the pre-campaign exodus of leading members of the Harper cabinet, the inability to build even a kilometre of oil pipeline toward the Gulf or B.C coasts) dissipated in the clear blue skies of August. – Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
The new platform includes a projection made in July by the PBO, which forecast a $2.4 billion surplus, based on the Bank of Canada’s July Monetary Policy Report. His role is to oversee nationally, not to review files.
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Trudeau says a Liberal government would “absolutely not” prioritize religious and ethnic minorities. When it comes to TPP, he simply had no mandate to sign a major agreement, in secret, just days before an election. Maggi said that could benefit Elizabeth May, the Green leader, who could add to her caucus.
