Stephen Harper Government Has Run Consecutive Deficits After Taking Power And $13 Billion Surplus Left By The Liberal Government!
As the current critic of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Seniors, McCallum is very passionate about immigration issues and is troubled by what the Conservatives have done to every part of the immigration system, from Refugee settlement to family class visa and from Student visa to Temporary Foreign Workers. “This government has totally messed up the immigration system where families are facing unknown processing time delays in the family class and the Conservatives response to all these problems is absolutely pathetic,” McCallum said.
By R. Paul Dhillon
SURREY – Former Defence Minister and current Liberal MP John McCallum, who was on a four day visit to BC speaking ahead of the Conservatives delayed budget to be released next week amidst a tanking economy brought on by steep oil price declines, sat down with the LINK along with Surrey-Newton Liberal candidate Sukh Dhaliwal on Tuesday to talk about various issues, including immigration and economy, which he said the Conservatives have done a terrible job on managing.
“There is a misconception that the Conservatives have a done a good job of managing the economy, in fact they have totally mismanaged it, running consecutive deficits since they have taken power when our Liberal government had left with a $13 billion surplus,” said McCallum, a senior Liberal MP who was recruited in 2000 by then Prime Minister Jean Chretien after his many years as the Chief Economist with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and University Professor.
“As Liberals, we should be talking about our own economic record because it’s a great one during the Chretien and Finance Minister Paul Martin years when we were one of the top G7 nations on the economy. What has Stephen Harper and the Conservatives done, they have mismanaged the economy, running up deficit after deficit where Canada is seen by the international monetary groups as a honorary third world nation.”
McCallum said he is sick of hearing that Conservatives own the economic issue when they have done such a poor job fiscally.
“In 1993, the Liberal government inherited a $40 billion deficit from the Brian Mulroney Conservatives and over the 1990s and then into the new millennium, we proved to Canadians what it takes to build a thriving economy and Canadians need to take a close look at our record and Conservative record on it and they will see who is more sound when it comes to the economy,” he said.
McCallum called the recent Conservative announcement that they are bringing in balance budget legislation as laughable and electioneering.
As the current critic of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Seniors, McCallum is very passionate about immigration issues and is troubled by what the Conservatives have done to every part of the immigration system, from Refugee settlement to family class visa and from Student visa to Temporary Foreign Workers.
“This government has totally messed up the immigration system where families are facing unknown processing time delays in the family class and the Conservatives response to all these problems is absolutely pathetic,” McCallum said.
McCallum is optimistic that the Liberals will form the next government as Canadians are sick and tired of this government and he said the first priority of the Liberal government will be to fix the broken immigration system.
“Liberals want to welcome newcomers with a smile and not a scalpel like the Conservatives. It is in our self interest when we are competing with other countries like Australia and European countries that we have to do a better job of attracting people, especially young people as Canada is aging, so we should be focusing on student class immigrants.,” he said.
