Conservative Leader Stephen Harper brushed off calls to put politics aside in order to hold an all-leaders meeting to reach a Canadian consensus on the Syrian refugee crisis.
Speaking to reporters at a campaign event in Scarborough, Ont., Monday, Harper resisted proposals from the opposition party leaders to meet and discuss the crisis, which has dominated the campaign trail since last week.
“We’re not going to get into partisan games on this. The government is seized with this issue.”
Harper’s comments come one day after Trudeau called for the meeting on CTV’s Question Period.
“We’re not doing enough. I think everyone can agree that we need to do more,” said Trudeau. “I think it goes to the kind of country we are. We are a country that has successfully welcomed in people in the past.”
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he has also reached out to the Prime Minister's Office for discussions on the Syrian refugee crisis. He upped the pressure on Monday, pressing for Harper to act.
"The person who can take these decisions is the prime minister," Mulcair told a crowd at a Labour Day parade in Toronto. "My chief of staff has reached out to his to try and get a discussion rapidly.”
The NDP has also called for the appointment of a Syrian refugee coordinator to manage the resources of government departments overseeing refugee applications, travel to Canada and resettlement.
The refugee crisis became the main topic of discussion on the campaign trail last week, after a photo of a drowned Syrian boy, three-year-old Alan Kurdi, whose aunt lives in B.C., surfaced on the Internet and captivated the world.
The story prompted calls, including from Trudeau, for Canada to send military planes with security and immigration officials to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to airlift Syrian refugees out of the region, as Canada did in 1979 with the Vietnamese boat people.
“I think we definitely need to start putting people on the ground to process directly,” said Trudeau. “We should be doing that more often with the kinds of case workers that have been very, very effective for Canada in years past.”
Despite the growing pressure to change his government’s policy toward Syrian refugees, Harper has refused to do so. To date, the Conservative government has accepted 2,300 Syrian refugees, and Harper has pledged to bring 10,000 more from the Middle East over the next four years if re-elected.
On Monday, Harper said his government will continue to focus on protecting Canadians’ security while trying to protect vulnerable Syrian refugees.
“Let me also assure Canadians that when we are bringing people from a war zone, from an area controlled by terrorists, that we’ll make sure that Canadians’ security is properly protected.”
Meanwhile, a number of cities and provinces -- including Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec -- have stepped up, saying they are willing to take in more refugees. Harper, however, will need to greenlight those plans before they can be carried out.
- Saskatchewan: In a Facebook post shared on Friday, Premier Brad Wall said his government has told Ottawa "that Saskatchewan can and will support more refugees."
- Manitoba: The Manitoba government has pledged an additional $40,000 to local settlement service providers so they can accommodate hundreds more refugees in the coming months
- Ontario: Last week, the province's Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced $300,000 in government funding for an organization trying to bring 1,000 Syrian refugees to Toronto
- Quebec: The province's Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said Monday they are ready to take in 3,650 refugees before the end of the year – 2,450 more than originally planned.
With files from the Canadian Press
