Saturday 7 May 2011

Like Iago, whispering poisonous words ...




MinJKenney and his minions marched across the landscape, accepting every invitation and attending every event in a multitude of ethnic communities in the GTA and the lower mainland of Vancouver. From
here: [...] Kenney told the Star. “There were 32 Liberal MPs from the GTA, and of the hundreds of ethnocultural events I attended in the past five years going from Scarborough to Mississauga, typically there were no Liberals there [...]

That's how the Cons cajoled, wheedled and convinced small *c* conservatives of various ancestries that Liberals and NDP were profligates who would: wreck the economy, bring their small businesses to ruin and encourage their sons - and particularly, their daughters - to defy paternal authority.

Quite the feat. MinJKenney calls their culture "barbaric" in the new immigration guide, lets his sycophants shrieeek themselves hoarse over so-called "honour killings", reels them into the fold of the Contempt Party and brags about winning the "ethnic" vote.

Do you imagine the smear job on Layton in the last minutes of the electoral campaign was a last-ditch, desperate move? Think of the ways this item planted at Sun Infotainment would resonate with new Canadians who feel threatened by a secular environment, and its impact upon their traditionalist values. It was bullshit but it fed the seeds of fear that Min JKenney had planted.

The insight about these Con tactics comes from Lise Bissonnette, who observed how the Contempt Party read the cultural markers of the communities they wanted to capture, and exploited their fears to gather their votes. Events that appeared authoritarian and repulsive to progressive Canadians were actually reassuring for those communities. For example, the event involving Awish Aslam was no doubt horrifying for many traditional parents. They likely blamed Awish Aslam for what occured and approved of the manner the Cons handled the incident. In their communities, young women should not "defy" authorities and speak out in public, as she did.

Courageously, from my perspective, but then my generation cast off, decades ago, the diktats of a specific religious and social oppression.

The photograph above is from here. Worth checking out, as it appears this young woman was not flim-flammed by MinJKenney and his Con job.

14 comments:

Cliff said...

Mostly agree, except regretfully I think it was probably Liberals behind the Sun smear not the Conservatives. Its already come out that the last time the story was being shopped around to the media it was by a Liberal fixer.

sunsin said...

This may be effective but it is also very short-sighted. The young people in these communities do not necessarily think like the older folk. The NDP is quite popular among many younger Canadian Chinese, for instance, and even the local Chinese paper gave Layton a higher mark on the debate than Iggy or Steve.

Alison said...

Perhaps the immigrant communities have not really understood the nature of the Cons. Many of them came to this country to escape corrupt dictatorships. They have now helped elect one. They also won't be so happy when they realize they can't get their immediate families over here so easily.

deBeauxOs said...

Though their parents may find the traditionalist Cons reassuring, it's the votes of young "ethnic" voters that will determine the outcome of the next election, as sunsin points out.

susansmith said...

yes, I don't think we can make assumptions about what various ethnic communities think or really want unless we actually talk with them. So many/some/few may be shocked on how they were described in your blog today.

It's something to think about!

fern hill said...

Care to be specific, janfromthebruce?

deBeauxOs said...

The tactics used by MinJKenney and people like Parm Gill are not rocket science.

It's a reality that members of ethnic communities may hold tight to their traditionalist values, since many left economically precarious or politically volatile situations in their countries of origin. The Cons exploit legitimate fears.

I have friends whose parents vote for the Cons, for the reasons I outlined. They are not stupid or gullible people. The Cons make persuasive presentations that are based on alarmist key points. In the absence of opportunities for all political parties to present rational arguments and salient facts, the outcome is what it is.

In fact, it behooves all parties to listen to the concerns of new Canadians when developing public policy. Not that the Cons listen; approval of applications for family reunification has decreased under the Harper Regime.

Skinny Dipper said...

In my unscientific examination of polling districts that had high or low non-European Canadian populations which were located close to each other and had similar economic status, there was very little difference in the percentage of votes for each party. This tells me that "ethnic" Canadians are less likely to think about food, dance, and culture; and more about family economics. While Jason Kenney may be despised by opponents of the Conservative Party, he is a political marketer's dream. He was successfully able to shape the needs and desires of different cultural communities. Before the next federal election, the other parties will need to do the same.

Anonymous said...

I don't trust the Federal ballots marked in pencil. They were just too easy to tamper with. I didn't think ballots marked in pencil, were even legal

Canada is a cesspool of corruption. Harper went right off his nut, he was totally rabid to win, even begging for a majority. Harper even campaigned after the cut off.

I have a great fear for this country and for the people, with that madman at the lead. He is an underhanded snake in the grass.

deBeauxOs said...

Good grief! Why would you focus on the pencil aspect?

Do you actually think the deputy returning officer, the poll clerks and the party reps erase original marks and change the votes during the ballot counting?

If the Cons had somehow corrupted the electoral organization in Alberta, say, they would ensure that their people worked in critical positions, and they would have arranged for the replacement of complete ballot boxes.

Námo Mandos said...

The cultural issue exists, but I think it's thoroughly dominated by the whole socio-economics of the GTA suburban lifestyle. It is not a lifestyle that leads to social solidarity. Gas appears magically at the gas station, food appears magically at the grocery store, and you never have to talk to anyone who isn't of the same socio-economic class or higher if you don't want to.

There are cultural/traditional reasons for *choosing* that lifestyle---big homes are needed for big weddings, which is the flip side of the brightly coloured Bollywood wedding movie genre. But it's not all that different from the "white flight suburb" phenomenon.

Peter said...

The cultural issue exists, but I think it's thoroughly dominated by the whole socio-economics of the GTA suburban lifestyle. It is not a lifestyle that leads to social solidarity....etc., etc.

That's silly on the face of it. Obviously they are "solidly" behind the Cons.

Námo Mandos said...

Are you being disingenuous, or do you not know the difference between being "solidly" behind something and social (ie, inter-class) solidarity?

deBeauxOs said...

The folks in the suburbs, whatever their ethnic differences have mostly settled in there for the same reasons and they do have many socio-economic and class entitlements in common.

That's how the Cons, and über political schmoozer MinJKenney gets to them.

Wait until some of their kids are tapped to fill the new mega-prisons, a few years down the road.

Unless they're card-carrying members of the #Contempt Party which will automatically provide them with a Get-out-of-Jail pass.

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