Immigration takes centre stage,
Party policy important as humanitarian crisis in Europe intensifies
The photos of Alan Kurdi published earlier this month — his limp body washed up on the beach after he drowned while he and his family were trying to get to Greece — triggered massive public outrage and thrust the debate over Canada’s immigration policy into the spotlight.
With the humanitarian refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe getting worse by the day, all three mainstream parties are only too aware of how important their response to such matters is to Canadian voters.
While Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has been struggling against criticism from all sides, both the Liberals and New Democrats have been putting pressure on Harp- er and his government to do more.
Early in the campaign, Harper announced Canada would welcome 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees from “persecuted ethnic and religious minorities in the region” to Canada over the next four years, adding to the 10,000 Syrian refugees the government previously said it would accept over the next three years. Ottawa has also announced an emergency relief fund for Syria matching Canadian donations up to $100 million. But will this be enough to win voters? And what do the three parties have planned for immigration policy overall?
The Conservative party plans to stay the course, making sure the sweeping changes it made to the immigration and refugee system since 2007 continue to run smoothly and efficiently.
“I believe the focus has to be on the successful implementation such as the new express entry system, which is the mainstay of new economic im- migration to Canada now,” said Jason Kenney, the minister of defence and multiculturalism and the former minister of immigration who proudly defends his government’s record on the file.
The express entry program allows potential employers and provinces to pick candidates from a pool of people who have applied to come to Canada.
Meanwhile, the NDP and Liberals plan to announce policy initiatives in immigration in the weeks to come. But front and centre for both leaders is their response to the Syrian refugee crisis, with both trying to win votes with more expansive quotas for Syrian refugees. Both parties say they envision a kinder, gentler system that welcomes newcomers without the red tape and regulations.
For the New Democrats, “the file is incredibly important for a number of reasons,” said Andrew Cash, an NDP candidate and the party’s former multiculturalism critic.
Immigration is very much tied to the country’s economic picture in Cash’s mind. But he sees it slightly differently from Kenney. He sees a less than rosy economy with newcomers and immigrants across the country as well as those that live in his riding of Davenport experiencing income inequality, precarious jobs and a lack of child care.
Similarly, Liberals say immigration is critical to the future of the economic future of the country.
“We have an aging population,” said John McCallum, Liberal candidate for Markham-Thornhill and the party’s former immigration critic.
“We are in competition with Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries to attract qualified immigrants,” he said. “If we scowl at them and erect massive barriers and make their lives miserable by giving them inches of paperwork to fill out and fees and all sorts of hassles and harassment, they may go to the beaches of Australia.”