Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, March 10, 2012

New Canadians key to Conservative fortunes: Kenney

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party would have an even stronger majority government today if new Canadians had been the only ones voting last May, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told Conservatives on Friday.

Speaking at the Manning Centre networking conference, Kenney said new Canadians in the last election cast ballots for the Conservatives in greater proportions than did other voters.

“We have gone from a 50-point deficit vis-a-vis the Liberals amongst new Canadians in 2000 to a 24-point lead in this last election,” said Kenney. “We apparently won the votes of 37 per cent of Canadians born in the country, but 42 per cent of immigrants to Canada and 43 per cent of immigrants who arrived at least 10 years ago.

“This is today’s Conservative Party. If it was just new Canadians who were voting, our majority would be even bigger.”

For generations, new Canadians tended to gravitate to the Liberal party. However Kenney has worked tirelessly to court ethnic communities across the country, convinced their voters share many of the Conservative party’s core values. In May, Kenney’s efforts paid off with the Conservatives taking several multiethnic seats that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, including several of the “very ethnic” seats he had targeted.

Kenney said the trick to winning over new Canadians is looking at where their values correspond to the Conservative party’s values, then paying attention to them and their concerns.

“Sitting down, listening, showing people respect, not taking them for granted,  delivering on symbolic and emotive issues that mattered, allowed us to get people to start giving us at least the benefit of the doubt, to begin tuning into our frequency and then realizing that their values were aligned with ours — on family, on the economy, on crime, on taxes, on democracy, on just about everything else.”

Kenney said the Conservatives followed the template created by Brian Mulroney’s government when it came to apologizing for Canada’s implementation of a Chinese head tax in 1885.

“The lead-up to that, the announcement itself and the fallout from it had Prime Minister Harper on the front pages of the large circulation daily Chinese media outlets day after day after day for months,” Kenney said. In the last two elections, the Conservatives had the highest proportion of Chinese candidates running for office.

Kenney said new Canadians are often the first to disapprove of those who want to jump the queue or cheat to get into Canada

“New Canadians are the least tolerant of those who would seek to abuse our generosity — the queue jumpers, the crooked immigration agents, the fake immigration marriages, the bogus asylum claimants, the human smugglers. New Canadians constitute the bulwark of public support for our agenda to reform and improve Canada’s immigration system.”

Beyond the strategy and the tactics, Kenney said the Conservatives have worked to increase the amount of coverage and advertising in ethnic media, to “manage relationships” and to ensure Canada’s diversity is reflected in government appointments.

Kenney said the next step is to get more members of ethnic communities on the boards of electoral district associations and in the offices of Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers on Parliament Hill.

Kenney’s comments came during a session focusing on attracting the support of “near customers” — Canadians who can be won over to voting Conservative.

Another speaker, Mitch Wexler, said urban Green voters and those interested in bread-and-butter issues can be won over, as were new Canadians. Andrew Dawson, who works with the Canadian Building Trades Council, urged Conservatives not to write off union members. While members of the council belong to a union, he said many of them share Conservative values and private sector, blue-collar unions represent a tremendous opportunity for the party.

“Reach out to them because they will reach back.”

Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Elizabeth Thompson 

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