[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[viper37]

I agree with CC that it is a cynical electioneering move. It remains to be seen if it pays off for them. I suspect that the Cons are gambling that people in Quebec care enough about this issue to drop the NDP, and are unlikely to vote Liberal, while people in the RoC don't really care enough about the issue to switch votes (well, obviously they are wrong in the case of CC!  ).

It's the Conservative position that is gaining them votes, it's the NDP's stance on it that makes them lose ground.  The drop in the NDP polls was made in favour of the Bloc and the Cons equally.  The Bloc goes further than the Cons on the issue, but they are irrelevant.
The NDP has been losing ground outside of Quebec too, but they weren't a threat except in Ontario.

For myself, I totally disapprove of this move, I think it is pandering, incencere, plays to nativist Canadian bigotry, and will (and is intended) to have basically no actual impact.

I disaprove of the politicual posturing because it is nothing more than that.  If they were to really act on it, like voting laws, I would support the move.

The Conservatives have made me proud to be Canadian, something I wasn't during the Liberal rule.  As a Quebecer and an entrepreneur, I feel a lot more respect from my Federal government than before.  There are still lots of issues to fix for this Canada to work properly, the Conservatives are clearly not the party to push for radical changes, but the others are worst.

it doesn't really change my impression of Harper (as a heartless bastard),

On the one hand, he's a deeply religious man who guides his actions by his religious stance.  I dislike that.
On the other hand, he's a heartless bastard   Meaning, in public, he's calm, he's rational, he's intelligent he doesn't let his emotions guide him, unlike Mulcair who has the temper of Darth Vader or Justin who could be considered as a tree hugging liberal

So yeah, heartless bastard, one more point for Harper

[viper37]

I can not read this article here (I have trouble with many G&M articles lately):
PMO ordered halt to refugee processing
Could someone copy/paste it here please?

Maybe I'll understand all the outrage then.

[crazy canuck]

see if this works

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/prime-ministers-office-ordered-halt-to-refugee-processing/article26713562/

[viper37]

yes thanks, I can read it now

[viper37]

You'll have to use Google translate, hopefully you'll get the gist of it:
L'Association québécoise des nords-africans pour la laïcité critique Françoise David

David=Québec Solidaire.  Communist party, close to the NDP with positions on the niqab similar to Trudeau.
She managed to get a motion in the National Assembly forcing the hand of the other party to vote against "Islamophobia".
Now, lots of secular muslim are counter-attacking saying she's a nuisance to our effort.  Lots of similar comments have appeared from muslim public personality commenting on how they found Quebec to be a very tolerant place, mostly devoid of racism or islamophobia specifically.  They're also saying such attitude are counter-productive to their effort to reform Islam and adapt to occidental culture as it plays into the hands of extremists poisoning their lives.

[viper37]

see if this works

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/prime-ministers-office-ordered-halt-to-refugee-processing/article26713562/

So, we still don't know exactly what the PMO office did or did not do with those files.
Who's job is it to cross-reference immigration lists with known terrorists?  Are the immigration dept bureaucrats qualified for this or would it require the PMO office to make the files transit to another office?

[crazy canuck]

It is the job if the immigration ministry employees.  Certainly not the PMO.  The government denies the PMO did process the files.  They say they only required an audit to ensure the validity of the UN referrals and once the audit confirmed the process referred valid refugees it was reinstated.

But there is a problem with that explanation. The government had previously explained that they were going slow with refugee applicants to ensure validity of the applications.  But if they had already conducted an audit to ensure the UN referrals were valid why was there a need to continue to go slow?

[viper37]

It is the job if the immigration ministry employees.  Certainly not the PMO.  The government denies the PMO did process the files.  They say they only required an audit to ensure the validity of the UN referrals and once the audit confirmed the process referred valid refugees it was reinstated.

It is basically what I was thinking, but that seems a strange way to make things happen.  I would have attached someone from the RCMP or SCRS to the immigration dept, it seems faster than having everything transit to the PMO and back.

But there is a problem with that explanation. The government had previously explained that they were going slow with refugee applicants to ensure validity of the applications.  But if they had already conducted an audit to ensure the UN referrals were valid why was there a need to continue to go slow?

From what I gather, the process went slower than it picked up pace again, no?

That whole thing is weird.  I don't know what the gov't tought it would achieve by doing this.

[crazy canuck]

I suspect it was just a procedural step to further delay the application process.

[Malthus]

I suspect it was just a procedural step to further delay the application process.

'We are de-liberating and de-liberately as we can ... '.

[Monoriu]

I am amazed that Canadians care about the speed of processing immigration visas of Syrians.  That should be priority number #324787239 for you guys.  Shouldn't you be thinking about things like taxes, Quebec, pipelines and such? 

[Rex Francorum]

I kinda agree. I think it went too far. Again, it shows that many people still vote mostly with emotions (which is bad imo).

[viper37]

I am amazed that Canadians care about the speed of processing immigration visas of Syrians.  That should be priority number #324787239 for you guys.  Shouldn't you be thinking about things like taxes, Quebec, pipelines and such? 

Mono, a simple question: what are taxes used for?

if the bureaucracy isn't quick to handle things and requires twice the work, who do you think ends up paying for this?

[viper37]

So, we had weed against Harper (you get free weed if you promise to vote vs Harper), now we have votes4nudes:
NSFW link

[Jacob]

So way back when, maybe it was the last election, I mentioned my disquiet with Harper. The phrase "hidden agenda" was thrown around - I don't remember if I used it first or if someone attached it to what I was saying as a technique for dismissing it. In any case, it was a subtopic for a few days or weeks and, as I recall it, the idea that Harper somehow had a "hidden agenda" was roundly ridiculed.

Today, however, there are plenty of things in Harper's legacy that lines up pretty solidly with what I was worried about back then, including:

- the poisonous wedge politics of the manufactured niqab issue and the attempt to set "old stock" Canadians against the old
- the damage Harper has done to Canadian scientific infrastructure through defunding and overt political interference
- the way he's undermined our national statistics collection
- the dismantling he's effecting on the CBC
- the games he's played with women's health and advocacy
- the removal of significant swathes of environmental protection
- the sheer indifference he's displayed to Native issues

... those things add up and pretty much align with what I was concerned about when we had those discussions back then. Maybe the agenda wasn't hidden, but the results are still shit as far as I am concerned even if I couldn't articulate them before he enacted these and other policies.

On top of that, I'm not particularly impressed with how he's handled veterans affairs either, and I wonder how a country coming out of a resource boom does not have a sovereign wealth fund.

Probably not a surprise to anyone here. Of course, I live in a riding that has consistently returned a CCF or NDP candidate since its inception, with only two short exceptions in 74-79 and 93-97.