Groundhog Day has come a few months late this year! Why’s that? Because today Conservative leader Stephen Harper announced the exact same policy at the exact same manufacturing plant in the exact same city with the exact same Paul Calandra as he did during the 2011 election! Huh? Back during the 2011 election, Harper announced that a newly elected Conservative government […]

Stephen Harper announces same policy in same city, same factory as he did in 2011

Stephen Harper announces same policy in same city, same factory as he did in 2011

Groundhog Day has come a few months late this year!

Why’s that? Because today Conservative leader Stephen Harper announced the exact same policy at the exact same manufacturing plant in the exact same city with the exact same Paul Calandra as he did during the 2011 election!

Huh?

Back during the 2011 election, Harper announced that a newly elected Conservative government would bring in reforms to help immigrants get foreign credentials recognized quicker.

That policy was announced at Novo Plastics in Markham, Ontario, where he was joined by Calandra, Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary.

Flash forward four years to August 27, 2015 and guess which leader of the Conservative Party of Canada showed up at Novo Plastics in Markham, Ontario with Calandra to vow to speed up the process for immigrants to get their foreign credentials recognized?

That’s right.

In other words, Harper announced a program during the 2011 election, went four full years before implementing it in the 2015 budget, then made an announcement on the same policy at the same place with the same Paul Calandra in 2015.

Harper did pledge an additional $8 million to be spent over the next 5 years (just in time for Harper and Calandra to make the same announcement for a third time at Novo Plastics during the 2020 election campaign).

Yet many of the problems the 2011 policy was supposed to solve seem to be the same in 2015.

Harper 2015 complains too many “doctors are driving taxis and engineers are waiting tables.”

Yet a Conservative press release from Harper 2011’s announcement claimed the policy would add “more occupations to this fast-track process,” including “doctors” and “engineering technicians.”

Anyone else get a feeling of déjà vu or is this a sign Harper’s just running out of ideas?

Photo: Conservative Party of Canada, CTV, Giphy.