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But veterans were enraged at the Harper decision, and particularly at the typically cack-handed way it was handled by then-minister Julian Fantino, who may hold the record, after Stephen Harper himself, for driving voters away from the Conservatives. The Liberals seized on the issue, and made a blanket pledge to re-open the offices.

Now Hehr is stuck with it. Despite his sensible responses last week, his words were quickly disavowed by an official spokesman sent in to clean up.

“The government committed to open the nine offices that were closed recently and the minister is committed to fulfil that promise and reopen all nine offices, including the one in Sydney,” said Christian Duval. “We are looking for different options for real estate, but the nine locations will be similar locations within geographic areas of the nine offices that recently closed.”

Nova Scotia MP Rodger Cuzner excused Hehr’s slip, noting he was still very new to the job. But that overlooks the fact that Hehr was only being sensible. His “mistake” was in failing to genuflect to the ill-advised campaign pledge.

The Liberals are faced with many of these bad promises. Transport Minister Marc Garneau blocked a bid for Bombardier jets to land at Toronto’s island airport, before studies could be completed on whether the jets would be any noisier than the existing propeller planes. Immigration Minister John McCallum is racing to keep a promise to bring 25,000 Syrians to Canada before Christmas, in spite of the danger a rushed process could compromise security. Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall released a letter Monday urging Trudeau to slow the resettlement plan in light of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted Canada would pull its CF-18 fighter jets out of Syria even as other western leaders vowed to step up the assault on ISIL in the wake of the paris tragedy. If anything cements the argument that ISIL is a threat well beyond the borders of the Middle East, the outrage in Paris is it. Do the Liberals still believe Canada is immune and can let other countries carry the fight on our behalf?

In his mandate letters to ministers last week, Trudeau urged them to admit mistakes. He could lead the way by admitting that not a few of the Liberals’ 300-plus campaign pledges might need some reworking.

National Post

KellyMcParland<