IMPORTING THE SUPERIOR CANADIAN:

The new ethno-politics (The National Post · Mar. 5, 2011)

A front-page article in a Toronto newspaper on Friday told readers about a secret Tory memo that -in the newspaper's words -"laid bare the Harper government's plans to win over immigrant voters by appealing to their social conservatism." This "Ethnic Paid Media Strategy," the newspaper reports, would present immigrant Canadians with the slogan "Isn't it time we all voted our values?" [....]

The Conservatives have adopted a very different, and more laudable, strategy in courting the immigrant vote -one that is apparent in the substance of the leaked memo from Mr. Kenney's office. Canada's liberal journalists may be aghast at the prospect of Ottawa soliciting immigrant support on the basis of "social conservatism" -but the fact is that many new Canadians are more religious and family-oriented than the rest of us. And the Conservatives owe no apologies for appealing to them on this basis. Certainly, it is preferable for our government to tap into immigrants' shared sense of traditional Canadian values than to treat them through the lens of victimhood and identity politics.

Posted by oj at May 14, 2011 8:44 AM
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