Cabinet Ministers and the Conservatives

Stephen Harper: But pleas had fallen on deaf ears inside then-prime minister Stephen Harper office, including pitches from cabinet ministers about how the government could and should do more than the 1,300 people it already committed to bringing over, according to CTV. Harper would only agree with a condition -- the focus had to be on persecuted religious minorities from the country. The Conservatives were under pressure to address the ongoing refugee crisis created by the Syrian civil war -- millions of people were on the move and refugee settlements were bursting at the seams. Given it was that or nothing, cabinet signed off, and on Jan. 7, a plan was announced -- 10,000 people would be brought to Canada by 2018, most by private sponsors. He was skeptical -- given the Conservatives' track record -- that they'd meet the deadline. "We could be waiting forever before 10,000 Syrian refugees arrive in Canada," he told one news outlet. Then serving as immigration critic for his party, McCallum chided the government for relying on private sponsors, saying they needed to lift more of the load themselves. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.