Keepitsimple

......error, sorry.

Actually, the goal of the "full" 25,000 government assisted refugees is now the end of this year - December 31st, 2016. If the current trend is continued, that will almost certainly be extended into 2017. Until then, they'll just be padding their numbers with privately-sponsored refugees - most or all of whom would have arrived in Canada no matter who won the election.

You got the first part absolutely right......but it was only a contributing factor in the election although it probably didn't affect the final outcome. That said, momentum is a big thing in elections and the since-proven outlandish promise fed the narrative that Harper was uncaring.....and since Mulcair offered a similar pledge to Harper, the NDP continued their descent. Hey - that's politics......but if it wasn't such an emotional issue - one that we all hope will end well, that original promise would have a more overt putrid stench to it.

When you promise 25,000 government assisted refugees by December 31st and deliver less than 2000 - and then say you need at least one year more to meet your promise. Heck - I would have been satisfied if they had managed to move 10,000 by yesterday - that would have been a herculean effort that deserved praise - even if it would have fallen short. Surely you can agree that the whole undertaking was a façade - not just a miscalculation....not even an exaggeration or aspiration....just out-and-out BS. And for that, you're darn right they should be held accountable. Can you just imagine if Stephen Harper had made the same promise (which he wouldn't). Where would your tolerance be for this debacle. Really - think about it.

As I said - queue the apologists! Didn't say I wanted more - or less. Just wanted a responsible approach to integration - while not ignoring refugees from other parts of the world. Wouldn't you think that's what Canadians really want? The election promise - as opposed to the NDP or Conservative one - has proven itself for what it is - a complete pile of BS. I've also gone on record as saying this "promise" puts the credibility of other election promises in question. Time will tell if the deficit will be constrained to their election promise of $10 billion in each of the next three years. Time will tell if they will satisfy all 94 recommendations of the T & R committee.

Canada is a welcoming country and Canadians have big hearts - but we're not stupid: In spite of all this, what does ol' John have to say? Mind-boggling! Queue the apologists. Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/two-more-weeks-needed-to-bring-10000-syrian-refugees-to-canada-liberals/article27970929/

Not completely unlike Mike Duffy - on a smaller scale.

Quite true - but not irrelevant. Both John Turner and Kim Campbell inherited the leadership and served for a few months - but as the following elections showed, neither had a chance and were soundly trounced.....giving credence to the fact that being from Quebec seems to have had its advantages all the way back to Pierre Trudeau. While Harper proved it wasn't impossible, it sure makes winning an election a lot easier if you can be popular in Quebec - that's just common sense.

Excellent work Waldo - I did indeed forget about Joe Clark's 10 months as PM. Now really Waldo, I said "elected" Prime Ministers....Kim Campbell and John Turner were not - as the populace soon proved with each only serving months in office. How much schooling do you need before you realize that - except for Harper - there does indeed appear to be an advantage coming from Quebec since Pierre the Elder was PM?

Thank you for your insight Waldo......so for the last half century, every elected Prime Minister - with the sole exception of Harper, was from Quebec. I think the point has been well made - there's a distinct advantage in coming from Quebec, no?

.....and if your self-righteous, holier-than-thou, drive-by smear-everyone comment was in any way directed at me - I'll remind you that I've stated more than once that most Canadians who have trouble with people "who are different" most often change their tune when second generation immigrants and refugees come out of our schools and surprise! They speak just like us and act like us. That's because they are "us" All that's needed is patience, optimism - and a very careful approach to helping newcomers integrate to Canadian society.

I think you've been schooled enough on the topic. Good luck with the rest of your idol's promises.

Let's not lose track of my main message - the promise was reckless and flew in the face of reality - especially for this new "evidence-based" government - and why you choose to blather to the contrary is beyond me......but to your misguided points: On how many privately-sponsored refugees were "in the works".......as of November 24th, here's what the CBC said - and also what the Conservatives said at the time. Either way, only the wilfully blind would ignore that a large number of the initial refugees were already "in the works" Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-plan-syrian-refugees-1.3333623 On my statement that well over 20,000 Iraqis had been re-settled since 2011 - you were right - it was since 2009 but as your article also states, the number was about 22,000 as of July - and counting. Is surpassing by 10% or more "well over" 20,000? I happen to think so. On my statement that there was a focus on privately-sponsored refugees - the Harper government's goal was that 60% of Iraqi/Syrian refugees would be privately-sponsored - however that was ramped up as more Canadians and supporting organizations stepped up to the plate - leading to this: As to the 6% figure of Syrians wanting to come to Canada - it was not a "single NP article". It was information provided by UNHCR and reported by all media. As for using text messages - if you were a true refugee fleeing conflict, would you not at least be curious as to how you could be helped? I agree it's not scientific - but the point was well-made in the media....that there are valid reasons why a huge majority of Syrian refugees would prefer other destinations.

Again - back to the original ridiculous promise of 25,000 government-sponsored refugees. Under the previous government,the focus was on privately-sponsored refugees from Iraq - and well over 20,000 have been settled in Canada since the ISIS debacle began. Hardly a peep from the media. Why privately-sponsored? Because they have a much better chance of quickly integrating in society with the help of people and organizations that are committed to successful outcomes. Government-sponsored refugees run through a mish-mash of Federal, Provincial and Municipal support systems that lack the "roots" and consistency that private sponsors can provide. The initial 10,000 refugees that are currently "in process" are almost exclusively privately sponsored and a large number of those were already in the works when the new government took over. So really - we haven't even started to "test" the systems that have to be in place to accommodate the government sponsored refugees. Canadians have an abundance of good will - so it's a difficult issue to overtly criticize this government's futile attempts.....but there will be a price to pay when the facts are in and the bills are totalled up.

It's all about holding them accountable for making ridiculously mis-informed decisions in the first place. Making a commitment to responsibly increase and prioritize the inflow of Syrian refugees is honourable. Completely ignoring the human consequences in making commitments that bear have no semblance of reality is not. The truth is, the vast, vast majority of Syrian refugees do not want to come to Canada - they want to stay closer to home and hopefully, one day return. That's only one element of this misguided attempt to shoehorn 25,000 government-sponsored Syrian refugees into an election promise that was made only to score points against the more practical approaches of the other two parties.

I don't believe I am. Yes - Harper broke some promises but those original promises were very plausible, whether you agreed with them or not - and they were "broken" for valid reasons - again, whether you believed them or not. The ice-breakers were a fiasco of requirements, procurement and funding debacles - as military procurement has traditionally been. Senate reform? Hey, the guy tried. My point has been that the Trudeau Refugee promise was made in the absence of any reality of how hard it is to do something of this magnitude. This was a promise that was just blurted out. Heck, we've since learned that only about 5% of Syrian refugees actually want to come to Canada. I can't recall any government making such an ill-informed commitment. Agreeing to all 94 recommendations of the T & R committee - before defining, analyzing and costing each one - is another "blurting out" promise. We'll have to wait and see what the fall-out will be.....but you can bet it's going to cost us a trunk full of cash. Time will tell where the "modest deficit" of $10 billion actually ends up. Reports are that it's already looking like $20 billion or more.

The most important thing to me is having a leadership that understands the consequences of making reckless promises. Reality is starting to set in as Trudeau finds out that there's much more to refugee re-settlement than dumping people off at the airport. McCallum is STILL saying they'll get 25,000 into Canada by end of February, even though they will be lucky to reach 2500 by December 31st. More troubling is that the vast majority have been privately sponsored - that means that all of the Federal/Provincial/Municipal support systems have yet to be adequately tested and monitored to ensure they can handle the influx. It should never have been about ridiculous target dates - you just can't play roughshod with peoples' lives.

Again - you are confused with the constant moving of the goalposts. From The Star to clear things up for you: Link: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/26/justin-trudeaus-backtracking-on-refugee-promise-casts-shadow-over-other-pledges-walkom.html

You're confused by all the hokus-pokus around the targets. McCallum has admitted that the election promise of 25,000 government sponsored refugees by end of this year will not be met until the end of 2016 - at best. It's been posted several times.

A month! You're not keeping up. They are missing their election promise by more than a year - at best! And now they've missed their revamped December 31 promise by over 75% - which simply makes a laughing-stock out of the revised Feb. 28 promise. So far on this issue, you can't believe anything these guys say.

On this one, you're making sense.

Nope. Just holding them accountable for their centerpiece election promises. A responsible, continuous inflow of fully-vetted, well-supported refugees is something that most Canadians would welcome. On this one, they simply blurted out numbers with no connection to reality. 25,000 government sponsored refugees by December 31 has proven to be a few hundred at best. As I mentioned previously, this recklessness will next rear its head in their commitment to meeting all 94 of the T & R committee - without any analysis, feasibility or costing. And then we get to Climate Change - what knee-jerk commitment will be made there? Will we see another Chretien Kyoto - except this time we'll actually have to pay through the nose? Listen - we're stuck with these guys for at least another 4 years so for Canada's sake, I hope they do well - and Canada does well. But other than a lot of pie-in-the-sky aspirations, this government is not off to a promising start.

Poor John McCallum - he was asked to make the best of a reckless, impossible election "promise". He's a loyal soldier but the embarrassing litany of "target adjustments" has removed any credibility that he and the Liberals have sought to achieve: First it was 25,000 by year-end. Then it was 10,000 by year-end and 25,000 by Feb. 28 - but it would now include privately-sponsored refugees. Then an admission that the target of 25,000 government-sponsored refugees would not be met until the end of 2016 - or more. So how many Syrian refugees will actually be in Canada by December 31? Try less than 2500. Regardless, Ol' John continues to blather of about meeting the overall target "well before the end of February"! Ya........right. Oh......and now we'll be taking in 50,000. Link: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/mccallum-says-10-000-syrian-refugees-won-t-arrive-in-canada-by-year-end-1.2711724

And if Trudeau keeps his word and assigns hundreds more training troops - you think that contact with the enemy will not increase, hey? Or are you implying that any training that we do will only be within protective confines, many miles from any actual combat? As for your silly term of "bomb trucks", you surely noted that the recent attempt to infiltrate Mosul was in fact, spearheaded by precisely that - huge, armoured bomb-trucks, yes? Thank God there was air support to mitigate their effectiveness. Of course, we can always call in the Americans to protect us, yes? The media is still waiting for a coherent explanation as to why we are pulling the jets out - when it's crystal clear that we can and should do all three components - train, participate in aerial combat and support, and supply humanitarian aid.