Trudeau: PMO vetting of refugees ‘disgusting’

A new poll by Innovative Research shows that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair did not do well in the last leaders’ debate on October. 2, hosted by TVA, but regained support after appearing on Tout Le Monde En Parle.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Trudeau accused Harper of trying to use the niqab issue to “distract and deflect from his failures on the economy”.

Messrs. Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau are without excuse.

The Liberals would axe the UCCB and introduce a new income-tested, tax-free monthly Canada Child Benefit that would boost payments to all families with annual incomes below $150,000. Only 41.6% said they would consider voting for the Conservatives, while 40.3% would entertain supporting the NDP.

In the wake of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Harper mentioned the strong economic bond between China and Canada share. Along the way, they have achieved two of their key goals – to weaken the Liberal party and to put the Conservatives in a position to dominate the 21st century in the same manner the Liberals did the 20th. Then Muclair went after Harper.

“This is the same Stephen Harper who has been playing the race card non-stop in this campaign…”

I don’t blame students for suffering from a bad case of Harper Derangement Syndrome.

Trudeau told him journalists could haul out a calculator to add it up, because heaven knows he hadn’t done it.

“He needs to stop now”, Trudeau said. He was in Vaughan – a riding held by Conservative Julian Fantino. Over the last days, the Liberal strategy has sent Trudeau into usually Conservative-held ridings. 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. The range of potential seats for the Conservatives is still slightly higher than for the Liberals and crosses into majority territory.

News this week that the Prime Minister’s Office quietly halted a few Syrian refugee processing this summer while it conducted an “audit”, ostensibly for security purposes, has become the latest flashpoint in an election that’s been repeatedly roiled by allegations of xenophobia and Muslim-bashing. The Canadian government violated that tenet, she says. “This delay is putting people in more danger as opposed to speedily bringing them to Canada”.

Trudeau objected to the role the PMO took to oversee the processing of Syrian refugees. Existing intelligence on the ground in Syria in particular makes identifying those people a challenge.

Mulcair’s criticism of Harper on the Globe report was more pointed.

Alazem says that while the PMO’s interference is shocking, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. “It is a shame on Canada and Stephen Harper should apologize and remove those restrictions”.

The Conservative leader was on the west coast today.

“Political staff are never involved in approving refugee applications – such decisions are made by officials in the Department of Citizenship and Immigration”. With the stock markets tanking, the loonie (Canadian dollar) dropping and job numbers looking poor in parts of the country, the economy has forced itself back into the forefront of the federal election campaign.