EDITORIAL: Carney’s candidates are ghosts from the past

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So many Liberal candidates in the upcoming federal election have been resurrected from the political graveyard that you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for the zombie apocalypse. 

When Justin Trudeau was still leader of the party, Liberal MPs jumped off the sinking ship and into oblivion so fast it was hard to keep count. Anita Anand from Oakville, Markham-Stouffville’s Helena Jaczek, Beaches-East York’s Nate Erskine-Smith and Sean Fraser all said they weren’t running again. Now, they’ve changed their minds. 

Just like Lazarus, they’ve been restored from the political dead into the Liberal fold. When Fraser quit in December, he posted a crayoned picture by his daughter and said he wanted to spend more time with his family. 

It seems three months was quite enough parental leave for him. Now that Liberal Leader Mark Carney has restored the party somewhat in the polls, Fraser’s back running in his Central Nova riding, despite another Liberal candidate having already started campaigning. 

Let’s not forget these people were intrinsic parts of one of the most incompetent governments in recent history. As immigration minister, Fraser was responsible for the nonsensical decision to allow in 431,645 permanent residents in 2023. Ignoring the fact this country already had a housing shortage, Liberal policies poured gasoline on the problem by increasing immigration to record levels.  

This country once had an immigration system that was the envy of the world. Programs such as those where private groups sponsored refugees were successful in settling large numbers of newcomers into this country. In a country where so many people are either immigrants themselves or the children or grandchildren of immigrants, it’s an act of breathtaking ineptitude to turn a popular program into a liability. 

Then Trudeau handed him the job of fixing the problem he’d created in the first place. He made him housing minister. 

A Carney government will have the same faces at the cabinet table as Trudeau. They’ll revert to bleating the same platitudes and the same failed solutions to the serious problems of our times. They’ll repeat the same boondoggles that have landed us in record debt. 

This country is at a critical point in its history. We need politicians with new visions and innovative solutions for the difficult road ahead.