Canadian Politics Today

Well, you can sure tell we're entering the runup to the election, cuz the Liberals are starting to dole out the money to buy votes. Yesterday, not coincidentally the same day Trudeau formally announced he would be running again, the Liberals decided to get more generous with welfare for 'seasonal workers'. Not surprising, the areas they will increase their generosity are mostly out East, where their previously promised welfare generosity got them every single seat last election. That was supposed to cost about $800 million per year but has exceeded $1.3 billion. Apparently more people took advantage than they had thought!

Now they plan to put an extra couple of hundred million to lengthen eligibility periods.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-announces-189-million-to-extend-employment-insurance-for/

Today it was happy happy time for immigrant families! The Liberals announced that, having doubled the number of elderly immigrants allowed to come in (as promised before the last election) they've discovered Canada has way too many hospital beds and empty nursing homes, and are going to DOUBLE it again! Because if there's one thing we need more of in Canada, it's elderly people who can't speak English or French. The cost will be minimal, a paltry few billion dollars a year in added health care costs. And that's a small price to pay to help gain more Liberal voters among the ethnic crowd.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lottery-immigration-reunification-1.4791705

Stay tuned for tomorrow's announcement! I'm sure we'll be getting lots and lots as we we get closer to the election period. Because taxpayer money is never spent properly unless it's spent helping Liberals buy votes!

Or helping Harper buy votes.

The Conservatives slashed the number of immigrant elderly allowed to come to Canada, saying it was costing billions and that a quarter of them wound up on welfare.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/don-t-bring-parents-here-for-welfare-kenney-says-1.1351002

The number of immigrants we accept into this country over the age 55-60, except in the most extreme circumstances, should be zero.  The family sponsors  can pay for them all they want, but until we have the ability to create more doctors and larger/more hospitals then the baby boomers who have paid taxes their whole lives here will continue to pay for it with their health.  This is the kind of thing that makes people shout "America First!".

The Harper gov did a bunch of sleezy election number crunches.  The Liberals do it a bit differently in some ways, but it's the same game.  It's worked fairly well for the Liberals provincially and federally over the decades.  It didn't work for Wynne last time, but it took voters 15 years to get wise to that game.

I see Trudeau getting a minority gov, unless Scheer really comes out flat or lame, which seems a very real possibility, which could mean another Trudeau majority.  I don't expect Scheer to knock people's socks off.  Jagmeet will be a non-factor, which could help the Liberals.

What is the proper word? Is it brazen? Shameless? Unprincipled? Immoral? Choose the word that you think best suits the Harper government's unprecedented use of public money for self-promotion.

The proper word is chump change compared to a commitment to spend billions of dollars a year to import elderly immigrants. Hey, haven't you been telling us forever that we need immigrants because of an aging population? How does bringing in elderly immigrants help with that?

It's called family re-unification and it's one of the facets of out system that attracts those immigrants we do need due to the ageing population.

If we only accept 20k older parents/grandparents a year and bring in 300k immigrants total I don't see how that attracts anyone.  And we aren't going to help our aging population by bringing in immigrants the same age as the boomers, so it shouldn't be allowed at all. 

The vast improvements in wealth, standard of living, human rights, democracy, crime/safety, education, justice system, infrastructure, sanitation/environmental conditions, healthcare, social programs etc that the vast majority of these immigrants coming from poorer countries will experience by coming to Canada is more than enough incentive to attract them.  We certainly don't owe them any favours.  They hit the jackpot, and we need them, so it's good for both parties.

Oh is that the excuse? Tell me, how did we get immigrants in the past when this was not an option?

Many came here and had their families here. Simple eh?

That is indeed 'simple'. Are you saying they don't come here and have families here now?
Because I'm pretty sure the possibility they might bring over gran and grandpa at some future stage did not impact the emigration plans of people a hundred years ago, or even fifty.

Obviously many came before that option was available. My gran and gramps were examples.

Can I ask why Scheer always has that stupid grin on his face?

It does seem to detract from an image of sincerity, but then Trudeau still has that habit of saying "ah" so often when he speaks. Personal quirks  that one must look beyond I would say.