Canada opposition raps PM over report his office delayed refugee processing

Mulcair attacked Harper for Bill C-51 calling it “Harper’s spy bill”. The only blemish on his political scorecard came in 2004, when it was expected that his newly united Conservative Party would be clobbered by Paul Martin’s Liberal juggernaut. What, then, is to happen to the thousands of Syrian-Canadians visiting families in the Middle East who live in Isis-controlled lands?

“Mulcair is a potential prime minister, and he represents Outremont, otherwise I would vote Liberal”, said another NDP supporter. “Instead, we’re meant to take Stephen Harper at his word that TPP is a good deal for industry and consumers”. On the NDP commitment to raise corporate taxes, Mulcair went after Trudeau.

“Trudeau enjoys an advantage on the perception he has the best plan for the economy and competitively trails in terms of economic risk as a leader in general”, said Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research Group.

The Quebec National Assembly voted unanimously calling upon Harper to stop using the niqab as a ploy to fan flames of what Danny Williams (a Conservative) has said is “bordering on racism”.

The 72-page platform, which Mulcair said would help him build “the Canada of our dreams”, broadly outlines all of the campaign pledges the NDP has made so far in their quest to form government after October. 19. The NDP held 12, the Liberals two and the Greens one.

Mr. Trudeau, who’s running for re-election in Papineau, Que., has visited Ontario 41 times, largely in Toronto and the GTA.

The newspaper supported the Liberals in 1993, 1997 and 2000 and the last time it backed a party was in 2006, when it endorsed the Conservatives.

Is it too cynical to suggest that the Conservatives are just fine with the Globe and Mail’s front-page story this morning?

“While the Canadian economy is stronger than other countries’, it remains fragile and needs to be protected”, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement accompanying documents detailing the costs of his election promises.

Canada’s opposition parties, seeking to end a near decade of Conservative rule in this month’s election, blasted Prime Minister Stephen Harper today over a report his office had halted the processing of a few Syrian refugee claims.

Another political issue that reaches beyond Canada’s borders also surfaced on the trail Thursday: the recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

“The audit we asked for earlier this year was to ensure the policy directives are being met. Political staff are never involved in approving refugee applications – such decisions are made by officials in the Department of Citizenship and Immigration”.

But the review itself may be the reason that only 287 government assisted refugee files were closed between January and August of this year, compared to 1,513 privately sponsored refugees. He accused Harper of “always trying to pivot to security concerns to the politics of fear”.

Yet the more trouble Harper faced the more he reached out to a base that often felt marginalized before he engineered a 2003 merger between the moribund, center-right Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance, a populist western based party.

Trudeau said PMO officials had no business interfering in what he called “important processes where lives are at stake”.