Martin’s Pander-Bear

Wow, talk about ballsy. Paul Martin, the Prime Minister fighting for his political life in Canada’s federal election this January, has recently announced that he intends to cut the immigrant landing fee.

“But there is a barrier in place for such immigrants, indeed for all immigrants to overcome,” he told a small rally in Victoria.”

That’s ballsy. See, it turns out the $975 fee for arriving in Canada as an immigrant was a “deficit-cutting” measure introduce in 1995 by none other than Paul Martin, then acting as Finance Minister. He’s hoping that this proposal will increase Liberal popularity among minorities – which are apparently deserting the incumbents so badly that the party is getting its ass handed to them by the separatist Bloc Quebecois, and are finding themselves struggling in Ontario.

So, he’s asking Canadians to vote for him, and in return he will end a tax he was responsible for imposing on them.

That’s either a flip-flop that would make John Kerry blush, or it’s a classic case of an election year pander-bear.

*Shakes head at Canada for even electing Paul Martin in the first place*