The Liberals are reworking Canada’s faulty parent and grandparent immigrant reunification program after several failed attempts. 

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced that the applications will be postponed until 2020 while the government reworks the application process. 

“To ensure that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has sufficient time to complete the development of a new intake process for the 2020 Parents and Grandparents Program, the reopening of the program will be postponed until Ministerial Instructions are issued,” said a statement on the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada website. 

The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) takes in about 20,000 elderly people each year.  Recipients of the visa are admitted as permanent residents and are eligible for citizenship. 

As noted by True North founder Candice Malcolm, there already exists a “super visa” program that allows elderly family members to stay in Canada two years at a time and the visa itself remains valid for 10 years. 

The parallel PGP route has seen several iterations after failing to meet the extremely high demand. 

Originally the program operated on an in-person first-come, first-served basis. After that system was scrapped, the Liberals created a lottery system that was also done away with.

The most recent form of the program was an online system that saw all of the spots were taken up within minutes of the website going active.  

Now, the Liberals plan to change the system once again. No details have been released about what the new program will look like in 2020.

Hockey Night in Canada’s ratings declined significantly after Coach’s Corner Don Cherry was fired in November, according to Canada’s rating firm.

Numeris, which published the 30 most-watched programs on Canadian television weekly, found that Hockey Night in Canada’s rating crashed immediately after Cherry was fired, and has continued to decline since.

Hockey Night in Canada, which is consistently on Numeris’ top 30, failed to make the list for two weeks after Sportsnet fired the iconic Coaches’ Corner host.

The most recent Numeris report found that Hockey Night in Canada only garnered 810,000 views on December 14th, a decline of nearly 18% from the same week in 2018.

That same week Survivor received 1,975,000 views and Young Sheldon had 1,890,000 views.

Don Cherry was fired on November 11th after he urged Canadians to wear a poppy to support Canadian veterans. Progressive critics alleged Cherry’s rant targeted immigrants for not wearing poppies.

“You people that come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada,” Cherry said on the November 9th edition of Coach’s Corner.

Since Cherry’s departure, his former co-host Ron MacLean and progressive commentators have suggested that the sport of hockey has a “white privilege” issue.

 “As a general rule, they’re often all white and when they’re not all white, the whites often have the speaking part,” MacLean said on November 30.

Since his firing, Cherry received an outpouring of support from everyday Canadians, as well as members of the hockey community.

A new poll from Ipsos Reid found that more Albertans would like to see their province separate than Quebecers.

The year-end poll on division and alienation found that 31% of Albertans believe their province would be better off independent, compared to just 26% in Quebec, a province with a long history of separatism. 

Separatist sentiments in Alberta have increased throughout 2019. Another poll conducted by Abacus in August found that one in four Albertans want the province to separate from the rest of Canada.

Sean Simpson, Vice President of Public Affairs of Ipsos Reid, says the results indicate that Albertans are feeling extremely frustrated.

“For decades they were helping the rest of the country through equalization payments, and now they’re in their time of need and not getting really the one thing that they’re asking for,” says Sean Simpson, he said.

Ipsos Reid found that 57% of Canadians believe Canada is more divided than ever, including 78% in Alberta and 55% of Quebecers.

“That seems to be a very high bar because I can remember the 90s going through a referendum where we were 0.1 percentage points away from tearing this country apart. So the fact that 57% think we’re more divided than ever means that there’s a serious underlying issue here in Canada,” he added.

The Albertan economy has been in distress in recent years, largely due to a downturn in the energy sector.The federal government’s failure to assist the resource-based Western economy has led to the creation of a “Wexit” separatist movement.

Canada’s GDP shrunk by 0.1% in October according to Statistics Canada. The significant drop was the first GDP decline over an eight-month period. 

Several sectors were affected including manufacturing which dropped by 1.4% in October. Retail also fell by 1.1%, which is the largest drop over the last three years.

During October, the Canadian economy also lost 23,100 jobs. A month later, in November, the country saw a whopping 71,000 jobs lost. 

Despite the worrying signs, the Liberals have maintained that the Canadian economy is doing well.

The latest fiscal update released mid-December projected that the Trudeau government is expecting a $26.6 billion deficit for this year, exceeding projections by almost $7 billion. For the following year, the Liberals are projecting an even higher deficit of $28.1 billion. 

Both Trudeau and Morneau have understated the significance of the worrying economic trends. In a year-end interview, Trudeau said that the Liberals have kept their debt low. 

“I actually disagree with those economists. We’ve been very careful to keep our debt low as a share of our economy,” said Trudeau.

According to Oxford University economists, Canada has a 40% chance of a recession heading into 2020. Canadians also seem to be settled on the possibility of an oncoming recession, with a majority reporting that they believe a recession is “likely” or “somewhat likely.” 

Conservative MP and Finance Critic, Pierre Poilievre, has warned that the Liberal government could be leading the country towards a “made-in-Canada” recession. 

“I’m not saying there is (a recession), but if we head to a recession, it will be a made-in-Canada recession,” Poilievre told reporters.

In response, Morneau called the comments “irresponsible” and maintained that the Canadian economy was growing. 

According to an Ipsos poll Albertans are feeling more financially insecure than people living in any other province in Canada. 

The poll, which surveyed how happy Canadians were in several categories, including their finances, found that Albertans were expressing the most discontent. 

In Alberta, 38% of respondents said that they were cutting down on their essential spending, which was 10% higher than the national average of 28%. 

Only 51% of people in Alberta also said that they were feeling better about their financial situation, while on average 65% of Canadians reported feeling better. 

In November 2019, Alberta’s unemployment rate grew from 6.7% in October to 7.2% in November, which was far above the national average of 5.9%. 

Both Calgary and Edmonton have some of the highest unemployment rates of major Canadian cities. In October, Calgary had an unemployment rate of 7.2% while Edmonton reported a similarly abysmal rate of 7.1%. 

When asked how they would rate their personal finances, 49% of respondents described their situation as “bad”, which was 14% higher than the national average. 

With regard to national unity, 60% of Canadians believe the country is divided, while a whopping 78% of Albertans think that Canada is more divided than ever. 

Albertans were also reporting employment instability, with one in ten of them stating that they had recently lost their job. 

Businesses have been leaving Alberta or shutting their doors at a high rate in the province. According to the Financial Post, business insolvencies have ballooned by over 70% in Alberta since the collapse of global commodity prices in 2015. 

The Liberal government has pledged to increase funding for CBC News next year. 

Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism Minister Steven Guilbeault wants the CBC to increase local news coverage and to work with smaller platforms. 

Guilbeault said that while he hasn’t spoken to the CBC about the project, the broadcaster would receive additional funding for the effort. 

The CBC currently receives $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars every year despite steadily losing revenue and an audience. The exact amount of funding the CBC could expect to receive next year was not revealed by the minister. 

In the last five years, the CBC’s TV ad revenue has declined by 53%. Over the first six months of 2019, the CBC only pulled in $90.9 million in TV ad revenue. The total amount is about $100 million short of the $192.2 million it earned in the first six months of 2014.  

“Our objective is not to make money but to provide a service and fulfil our mandate. We reinvent ourselves every year to try and find new ways to do things because we have to offer more, but with a smaller budget. So that requires visionary talent,” said Radio Canada Executive VP Michel Bissonnette.  

Viewership has also steadily declined over the last year. On average, 14% fewer people watched the CBC this year than in 2018. 

As part of Guilbeault’s mandate, he was tasked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “strengthen the regional mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada.”

In his mandate letter to Guilbeault, Trudeau said that regulating social media for hate speech and “illegal content” was also a “top priority” for the minister. 

“(You will) create new regulations for social media platforms, starting with a requirement that all platforms remove illegal content, including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant penalties,” wrote Trudeau.