Short memories and weak loyalties

I'm not sure what's a worse sign for the Liberal campaign: the fact that one of its own cabinet ministers is campaigning against the party's current policies, or the fact that PMPM has been reduced to promising to undo his party's own damage:

Liberal Leader Paul Martin will pledge to kill a costly immigration landing fee in an effort to lock in the traditional support of new Canadians.

Martin is expected to announce during a campaign stop in B.C. later Tuesday that he will roll back the $975 fee if he is re-elected in the Jan. 23 election.

The fee was introduced by the Liberal government in 1995 and applied to adult immigrants. But children and orphaned relatives applying for immigration were exempt from paying the fee.

Not only was the fee introduced by the Liberal government, guess who cited it himself as a specific example of what he felt was "fair" belt-tightening as part of that infamous budget?

Because so many of those affected have given so many years of valuable services to Canadians, we are committed to downsizing the public service as fairly as possible...

As a second example, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has made clear our commitment to a fair, affordable and well-enforced immigration policy. Therefore, a form of financial guarantee will ensure that sponsors of immigrants meet their obligations.

In addition, a $975 fee will be charged all adults immigrating to Canada to offset the costs of immigrant services.

Judging from Emerson's attempt to position himself as an outsider cabinet minister and PMPM's willingness to forget who was behind the landing fee in the first place, the Libs apparently doesn't think much more of immigrant voters than they do of Canadians generally in telling them which parties are and aren't relevant within the election. But it shouldn't take too long for such blatant politicking to backfire - as so much of the Libs' campaign has so far.

(h/t to TDH Strategies.)