Things seemed to get worse with the Syrian refugee crisis, or more specifically the image of Alan Kurdi’s body. Believing ourselves to be a humanitarian country, it was a shock to learn that Canada could have helped, instead losing his extended family’s application in the quagmire of immigration bureaucracy.
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The Conservatives hope to make a few big gains in Quebec. In inflation adjusted terms military spending is lower than when Harper took office in 2006.
NDP leader Tom Mulcair opposes the TPP as damaging details from Wikileaks and others indicate the harm it would cause Canada’s auto, dairy and medicine sectors and to intellectual property, privacy, and internet access. The policy book was even taken down from the party website.
Ensconced in the corner of an airy doughnut shop on a traffic-choked commercial strip in the booming suburbs east of Toronto, “listening surreptitiously to all the conversations”, Trinidad-born novelist Rabindranath Maharaj is a keen observer who freely admits to being baffled by the attraction of the Conservative party among his fellow immigrants.
After the 2011 federal election, several commentators offered their perspectives on what would be required to keep the Liberal Party relevant in the wake of its most resounding defeat. And he promised to create a new tax bracket to raise taxes for people earning over $200,000 (vive la révolution).
But with only six days until Canadians go to the polls, Trudeau was looking to seal the deal by stealing support from the Conservatives. But then, towards the middle of September, it suddenly looked as though all the chips were falling in Harper’s favour. The eighties were barren years for the party in this province as it held just one seat for nearly 15 years.
The Progressive Conservatives and Harper-led Canadian Alliance merged to form the Conservative Party in 2003. He personally thanked the NDP leader, but made it clear his gratitude was not meant to be a political endorsement.
If Harper fails to win the support of enough opposition legislators, his government would fall.
Last weekend, Mulcair vehemently ruled out propping up a Stephen Harper-led Conservative minority government under any circumstances. Of course, this could all change. He says voters are more open to Trudeau.
Maharaj lives in multicultural Ajax, a closely watched bellwether district where Conservative immigration minister Chris Alexander is fighting to retain the seat he won from the Liberals four years ago.
Campaigning BC, Mulcair accused the prime minister of desperately signing on to a secret trade deal with 11 Pacific Rim partners simply to have something to announce on the election trail. Peacekeeping. The United Nations. The Liberal platform charges that the Harper government’s “mismanagement has left Canada’s armed forces underfunded and ill-equipped” and vows to “reinvest in building a leaner, more agile, better-equipped military”.
And on Harper’s comment that most of those cases had been solved?
The former mayor and his brother had front row seats for the Conservative Party leader’s speech, but didn’t directly interact with Harper in front of the cameras. They make up 4 per cent of the population, and 23.2 per cent of the prison population.
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He continued by saying, “It just feels like 10 months”.
