Program Dismissals and Entitlements

Justin Trudeau is fully loaded and ready to go. And the fact is, he should be allowed to demonstrate to the Canadian voting public precisely where his head is, what his values are, what he considers to be priorities, and address  himself to those issued for the further edification of those whose franchise may yet elect this man to head the country.

He has already distinguished himself in a variety of ways, uttering crude epithets in the House of Commons, taking positions that will serve to alienate one part of the country from another, and expressing sentiments that will be held dear to Quebec separatists.

Now that he is the official leader of the Liberal Party of Canada he has been given even greater opportunities to point out to Canadians what a grand old party it is, and how its leading champions are entitled to aspire to return to their former historic political prominence. Held back, alas, by the malign efforts of the currently governing Conservatives who have monopolized the seat of government for far too long.

The Liberals, under Justin Trudeau, will have no part of a recommendation that they and the NDP join ranks since their positions are so clearly similar. There was once a divide, with the Liberals holding the central portion of the Canadian political platform, the NDP firmly in control of the left-of-centre, and the Conservatives, poor deluded souls, the right-of centre.

And as any student of philosophy is aware, the golden mean moves to the middle; moderation.

The spanner in the works is that the Conservatives have arrived at that point on the social scale, while stubbornly adhering to the conservative side on the economic file. The centre is now so chummily crowded that there is spare little to distinguish one party from another; though none would so much as whisper that to be a reality.

Lately, in question period the demands to know and insistence on action by the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, prodded by the NDP and the Liberals, revolve around the temporary foreign worker permits, some of which appear to have been abused. The opposing parties, according to their leaders and parliamentary critics, feel the program represents a threat to Canadian workers, particularly in light of the suffocatingly high unemployment rate.

It has been cunningly revealed during Question Period that Justin Trudeau himself has engaged in approaching immigration to permit temporary work permits for specialized workers out of Beijing. "I understand that a first request has already been denied, but I would like to ask that you consider seriously a new request", he wrote to the Canadian Embassy in Beijing in 2009, citing the employment need of a restaurant in his riding.

Bearing in mind, needless to say, that these temporary foreign worker permits are meant to fill positions that Canadian workers are not skilled to apply for.

"The NDP, on the one hand, condemns the temporary foreign worker program but, on the other hand, we have letters from eight NDP members of Parliament, begging the government to bring in more temporary foreign workers into their ridings and to bend the rules to make it happen. Either the NDP is in favour of the temporary foreign worker program or it is against it, but it is talking out of both sides of its mouth", stated Heritage Minister James Moore, in response to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's objections to the program.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, put it all into neat context when she released the "small sample of letters from the opposition", making note that they "underscore the fact that both the NDP and the Liberals are being hypocritical and lack transparency on the matter of temporary foreign workers."