OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – Stephen Harper found himself on the defensive today, dogged by a controversial phrase from the leaders’ debate and his government’s efforts to prevent a Muslim woman from voting while wearing a niqab.
During Thursday’s economic debate, the Conservative leader said “new and existing and old-stock Canadians” agree with his policy on refugee health care.
The government sought to scrap a program that covered health care costs for people awaiting decisions on refugee claims, sharply curtailing coverage and allocating it based on where the claimants were from.
Harper says the policy is supported by “Canadians, who themselves are immigrants,” as well as “the rest of us” — Canadians descended from immigrants for one or more generations.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says the old-stock comment shows Harper uses “the politics of division” and doesn’t believe that “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
Also today, the Conservatives promised to seek a stay of a Federal Court of Appeal decision to allow a Muslim woman to wear a niqab while swearing the oath of citizenship — a decision Harper is defending.
“Look, when someone joins the Canadian family there are times in our open, tolerant, pluralistic society that as part of our interactions with each other we reveal our identity through revealing our face,” Harper said.
“When you join the Canadian family in a public citizenship ceremony it is essential that that is a time when you reveal yourselves to Canadians and that is something widely supported by Canadians.”