Close X
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
ADVT 
National

Refugee Crisis, Seniors' Health, Tax Issues Begin New Week Of Campaigning

IANS, 13 Sep, 2015 01:08 PM
    OTTAWA — Party leaders are attempting to shift the public's focus to domestic issues including taxation and health care as another week of campaigning in the federal election begins.
     
    But questions surrounding Canada's role in alleviating the refugee crisis in the Middle East continue to dominate headlines.
     
    And the trial this week of a former top aide to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper accused of influence peddling could also cast a pall over the campaign.
     
    But the Tories will be doing everything they can to cast light on their fiscal record while in office as the Finance Department unveils year-end figures for fiscal 2014-15, which could show that the government was on track to balance the budget.
     
    Last month, the department reported a $5-billion surplus for the April-June quarter, though Harper's opponents said that data was not up to date.
     
    Harper repeated his party's pledge to lower small business tax rates during a campaign stop in Ottawa's west end Sunday, where he attacked the Liberals and New Democrats over their proposed tax plans.
     
     
    While campaigning in Vancouver, where his party hopes to make gains on Oct. 19, the NDP's Tom Mulcair announced that a government under his leadership would spend $1.8 billion over four years bolstering health care for seniors.
     
    The NDP is hoping to frame week seven of the 11-week campaign around health ahead of the next leader's debate on Thursday in Calgary.
     
    But it was Mulcair's promise to help Syrian refugees that had some of his party's supporters calling for even greater action.
     
    Many New Democrats are urging their party to increase its election commitment to resettle 46,000 people over four years to as high as 100,000.
     
    An emotional debate over how best to help some of the four million refugees who have fled fighting in Syria was fuelled earlier this month by the images of a dead three-year-old boy from Syria washing up on a Turkish beach.
     
    In the meantime, former Harper senior adviser Bruce Carson goes on trial Monday in an Ottawa court on one charge of influence peddling related to his work with a company that was trying to sell water-filtration systems to First Nation reserves.
     
    The Carson case follows on the heels of the trial of Sen. Mike Duffy, which forced the Tories off of their message at the beginning of the campaign in August.
     
     
    Carson has pleaded not guilty to the influence peddling charge, as well as other accusations of illegal lobbying.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Drone Captures Photos Of New Endangered Baby Orca Swimming Alongside Mother

    Drone Captures Photos Of New Endangered Baby Orca Swimming Alongside Mother
    The new calf is the fifth baby since December to be born to the endangered population of killer whales that spend time in Washington state waters.

    Drone Captures Photos Of New Endangered Baby Orca Swimming Alongside Mother

    Over 65 Killed As Crane Falls On Mecca's Grand Mosque

    Over 65 Killed As Crane Falls On Mecca's Grand Mosque
    Over 65 people were killed after a crane collapsed on to the Grand Mosque in the Saudi Arabia's holy city of Makkah, which is preparing for the Annual Haj.

    Over 65 Killed As Crane Falls On Mecca's Grand Mosque

    Premier Christy Clark Says B.C. Doesn't Need Advice From Twerking Singer Miley Cyrus

    Premier Christy Clark Says B.C. Doesn't Need Advice From Twerking Singer Miley Cyrus
    Clark says Cyrus doesn't know anything about the reasons behind B.C.'s wolf cull, which she says is necessary to protect endangered caribou

    Premier Christy Clark Says B.C. Doesn't Need Advice From Twerking Singer Miley Cyrus

    Drowned Syrian Boy's Father Abdullah Kurdi Says He Blames Canada For Tragedy

    Abdullah Kurdi tells Die Welt that he does not understand why Canada rejected his application for asylum.

    Drowned Syrian Boy's Father Abdullah Kurdi Says He Blames Canada For Tragedy

    Governments Getting Stiffed On Online Sports-Betting Revenues

    Governments Getting Stiffed On Online Sports-Betting Revenues
    TORONTO — As the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots kick off the NFL regular season Thursday night, many Canadians will be cracking open their wallets for another season of picking a winner.

    Governments Getting Stiffed On Online Sports-Betting Revenues

    Syrian Woman Grateful For New Life In B.C. Hopes Others Will Get Same Chance In Canada

    Syrian Woman Grateful For New Life In B.C. Hopes Others Will Get Same Chance In Canada
    Hanan Alawwad says she's grateful Canada took in her family last year, especially because her eight-year-old son suffers from Hodgkin's lymphoma.

    Syrian Woman Grateful For New Life In B.C. Hopes Others Will Get Same Chance In Canada