Crying crocodile tears

Editorial

Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney was tarnished with the embarrassing fact that a (now former) employee of his office distributed to Conservative caucus members (and, accidentally, one New Democrat) a partisan strategy paper on government letterhead discussing fundraising to target “very ethnic” ridings.

Outrage greeted the issue, and not simply for the reasonable fact that partisan strategy should not take place under government auspices. Kenney is not only the immigration minister, he is also the Conservative party’s chief political organizer for multicultural communities. “It seems to me that is the real problem here,” deputy Liberal leader Ralph Goodale told media. “It’s a brutal conflict of interest that leads to the exploitation of the very people that he is charged as a minister to represent.”

This is as close to the meat of the issue as the opposition gets. One would certainly not want to see, for example, the minister of natural resources or the finance minister representing their party as the political outreach arm to the oil industry. On the other hand, Canadian governments have always had regional ministers whose role is both to represent a province or region in the cabinet and to heel the region politically as well.

Most of the outcry, though, has been crocodile tears shed over the allegation that this attention to ethnic groups is somehow exceptional and degrading. “It speaks to their mentality where they treat new Canadians as second-class citizens,” said Liberal MP Navdeep Bains.

This suggestion is ridiculous. The efforts made to attract new Canadian voters should not be viewed as any less savory than the variety of other strategies parties use to gain blocs of votes. And wooing ethnic Canadians has been a strategy of every party for generations.

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