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As for the fighter jets, the justification has always been an unholy mess. “I don’t think that Canada has a combat role to play there,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month. “And I think one of the things we’ve learned from conflicts like this is sending in Western forces in a combat role doesn’t necessarily make things any better.” Sounds like a mission to sit out, doesn’t it? But jets aside, we’re foursquare behind it.

However much noise these early decisions are creating, they are relatively easy to accomplish. The jets come home when they’re ordered to; the Jan. 1 refugee target may be unattainable, but March 1 or April 1 should be. When the Liberals recommitted to the mandatory long-form census and the inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, some mewling former Conservative ministers even agreed with them.

That won’t last, and as the Liberals wade into the day-to-day business of government, their determination to remake Canada may yield frustrating results. On Sunday, Trudeau formally committed to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to remove the visa requirement for his citizens. It will certainly salve an irritating bilateral rash, but it will be a surprise if Canada’s refugee system isn’t again flooded with Mexican claimants, and even more of a surprise if the system proved capable of processing them expediently. At year-end 2010, the year after the visa requirement was imposed, there were nearly 14,000 outstanding refugee claims from Mexican citizens.