Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Sure, there are a few reasons it's xenophobic.
For background, there's almost zero evidence for any preferences by ethnicity, but the little there is suggests any preference that may have been held in the past has been significantly diminished. As with most things, it's a very nuanced issue and party preference is much more strongly correlated with population density, education, and regionality. Almost all evidence that does exist suggests there's some voter preference for Liberal party, but it's very specific and very small (ie. Sikh voters in Ontario, but not in BC. Sikh voters in Ontario but not Chinese voters in Ontario). This would be impossible to game plan for election purposes, especially considering recent immigrant turnout is extremely low and remains that way for a long time. Political parties simply do not plan for election strategy way beyond the current cycle because most of the actors know they may not be there for the next election. Political actors believe in individual survival far more than future party electability. They're not going to make plans that help them electorally in 15 years in my opinion.
As for the xenophobia, you need to think about how an opinion like this forms and why it perpetuates for centuries. There's a reason it resonates as a wedge issue and has for many, many decades, in almost every country that allows immigration: fear of others (xenophobia). How does someone start to believe allowing new immigrants is a cynical plot to get re-elected? Why does it gain traction? It's not because of evidence and critical thinking
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In my cultural community, the overwhelming love the older generation has for the PM and party that brought in a lot of them into Canada in the 60's and 70's is shocking. They have Pierre Trudeau on a different level in terms of higher standard, almost to the point where it's strange to the younger generation. The level of dislike for his son is totally opposite. I do think there is some level of loyalty and admiration to the party and PM that does bring in you in, no matter who the party was.
The Harper government worked very very hard to court immigrant votes and support, the classic right hand man Jason Kenney was known as attend an insane amount of cultural events to drum up support. It was a key reason Harper won multiple elections and it was strange how they blew it up in 2015 with stupid talk about barbaric cultural practices tip line. A lot of wasted work.
I can tell you in my wide ranging circle of immigrant cultural backgrounds, a lot of people didn't have a clue about Canadian politics but they knew Kenney and voted for him and the Conservatives federally and provincially specially cause he was a regular at their church, mosque, synagogue, cultural center and more.