Immigration and refugee policies centre stage in federal election campaign: Party summaries

Star article summarizing party positions (pending formal release of their platforms):

Conservatives: The Conservatives are all about staying the course — with perhaps some small refinements along the way. Recent promises including trying to get the provincial governments to speed up processing of foreign credentials and increasing the number of loans to immigrants to upgrade their skills. Harper has pledged that his government would welcome 10,000 additional Syrian and Iraqi refugees — with an emphasis on religious minorities and those who are vulnerable over the next four years and create an emergency relief fund that would match Canadian donations up to $100 million for Syria.

Liberals: John McCallum, the Liberals’ former immigration critic, said reducing processing times for family reunification applications is high on the party’s list. That would mean more money and more resources to the department to cut wait times. As well the most egregious clauses of Bill C-24 would be rewritten. The Liberals would also increase the number of government supported refugees from Syria. Leader Justin Trudeau has said that he would welcome 25,000 refugees — many of whom would be government sponsored.