Tories launch last-ditch membership push
OTTAWA Conservative leadership hopefuls made some last-ditch pitches for support Monday in advance of a key campaign deadline — and stanching the flow of illegal migrants across the Canada-U.S. border played a prominent role.
Candidates only have until Tuesday to sign up new party members in order to buttress support for their leadership bids, so several — Kevin O’Leary, Maxime Bernier and Steven Blaney were doing their best to grab some Tory-friendly headlines.
In an early email blast, businessman and reality-TV star Kevin O’Leary suggested using the Constitution’s veto power, known as the notwithstanding clause, to block refugee claims from people who enter Canada illegally. It’s a response to a recent spike in illegal border-crossings from the U.S. into Canada, in many cases by people apprehensive about a Trump administration that’s limiting immigration and stepping up deportations. Under the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country agreement, migrants who seek to cross at official border crossings are turned back if they have already made a refugee claims in the U.S.
Ottawa could act unilaterally if the U.S. doesn’t agree to amend that agreement, O’Leary suggested.
“If the U.S. won’t agree to closing the loophole so that those crossing into Canada illegally are returned to the U.S. where they are entitled to a fair hearing before an independent court, then Canada must act on its own,” said the email.
Earlier Monday, former cabinet minister Bernier sent a basic solicitation, urging wouldbe supporters to sign up before 5 p.m. ET Tuesday.
But he later doubled down on O’Leary’s message, saying not only would he use the notwithstanding clause, but he’d deploy the military as a “temporary” measure to backstop existing police and border resources.
“If it takes too long to put that additional manpower in place, I will look at additional temporary measures — including deploying Canadian Forces in troubled border areas,” Bernier said in a statement.
Steven Blaney sent out an eyebrow-raising fundraising email of his own on the weekend, denouncing alleged anti-Semitic remarks by some Muslim leaders.
The email, containing the subject line “Should Allah kill all the Jews?”, referenced individuals including an imam and former Ryerson University teaching assistant who was recently removed from his position over alleged anti-Jewish remarks.
Leadership hopeful Michael Chong was also making headlines Monday — but not for his campaign efforts.
Social media was abuzz all day about a Globe and Mail item from March 22 by columnist Leah McLaren, since taken offline, in which she describes trying to breastfeed Chong’s infant baby during a house party more than 10 years ago, “just to see what it felt like.”
On Twitter, Chong shrugged it off as “no doubt odd, but of no real consequence.”