All arguing over PR. So predictable. Euphonius even threw out the first ceremonial straw man.
Of course Trudeau’s administration will do nothing about greenhouse gases. (Neither did Chretien’s, which SIGNED Kyoto.) They just do better PR. like the “One Tonne Challenge.” Liberal supporters will pretend the hot air matters and claim Harper was en environment-hater; Tories will harp on Trudeau’s alleged failures and forget Harper was ever PM, much less that he failed. When Tories are in power it’s the reverse WRT national defense.
Conservatives wined endlessly how this target was unreasonable. How could they possibly be properly screening them?
The same ones that are today saying, “Hur, Hur, what happened to that big promise, eh?”
For liberal supporters it wasn’t the number, or the date that were the most important part, it was stepping up to act, in the face of tragedy, in line with Canadian’s beliefs. (No, those beliefs were not reflected by, “Maybe we’ll take 10,000, but it could take a couple of years.”)
This month, end of next month, Canadian’s aren’t nearly as concerned with meeting a deadline as actually getting something done.
But it is amusing to see the same news outlets that were screaming about the unreasonableness of such a target now touting how lame it is the target hasn’t been reached. Don’t know about you, but I’m kinda enjoying it!
That promise was made before the Paris attacks (remember them?;)) which spooked everyone, including Canadians, a bit. Lengthening the process for security reasons, whether it was needed or not, was a prudent political move if nothing else. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t already a Trudeau hater minded one bit. Forget the stupid deadline, the refugees are still coming. That’s what matters.
“Stepping up” is intrinsically linked to numbers and dates. Otherwise, what’s the difference between this government and the last one? “We’ll do something, but we’re not committing to a time frame in which to do it” is exactly the same, in the real world, as “maybe we’ll do it and maybe we won’t.”
If the Conservative plan wasn’t enough, how is the performance of the Liberal government acceptable? You seem to be saying they’re doing something better in some vague way, but in fact what is happening is materially the same as what was going to happen, to this point, anyway. (I should note my estimate figure was way too high; the total brought in before the new year was just 1,848, most of which began working through the process before the election.)
I mean, I’m on the record as saying a government can honestly change what they do in response to changing circumstances, but there’s no actual evidence right now that the government is making a serious effort to meet its promise. Indeed, it’s rather apparent the initial promise was a lie. The Paris attacks made for a convenient excuse, but a little independent research will demonstrate “Security” has little to nothing to do with the delay. The promise of 25,000 government-sponsored refugees by year’s end was logistical balderdash even at the time it was made and there is no chance whatsoever the Liberals, which would have been more than sufficiently briefed on the relevant facts, were unaware of that. That doesn’t make the Liberals WORSE than the Tories. It makes them the same. I wrote to my Tory MP in September demanding emergency action to bring in more Syrian refugees and what I got was a stock statement that to be perfectly honest, if I read it but didn’t know where it came from, would have read like it was a statement by the Liberal government made today.
As the issue fades from the front pages the government will scale back its efforts to help Syrian refugees. If the voters don’t care, the politicians don’t. The government absolutely COULD bring in 25,000 government-sponsored refugees if it wanted to. The government has been sponsoring more than 20,000 refugees a year from various places around the world, every year, for a long time. They could move that number up for what would be, by federal government standards, an affordable budget increase. But it’s no longer election season.
Within four weeks you’ll see them start to combine privately sponsored refugee numbers with the government sponsored numbers in an effort to make it appear as if they’re meeting the February promise.