The Canadian Question: Letter 2

Letters to Editors and Commentators

Here is another letter I wrote to Kevin Michael Grace of The Ambler, regarding the immigrant vote during this 2006 election:

Dear Mr. Grace, I understand the general consensus is that the Toronto Liberal win was due to an overwhelming immigrant vote. But I believe that there is one factor which negates this prominence, and puts the Canadian national issue back to where it really is. For such a high Liberal victory to have occurred (plus a relatively high vote for the NDP), the urbanite Torontonians also must have had their say. This to me translates as ‘Whites’. For example, in the more exclusive Eglinton-Lawrence and Toronto-Center ridings of mostly wealthy White voters, the seats both went to Liberals. The White Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding (which apparently has a high Ukranian population) voted in the controversial, but Liberal, Ignatieff. And so on. My point is that immigrants have always been third bit players in Canada’s fight for nationhood. The two top players have always been the White Anglos and the White Quebecers. Pierre Trudeau introduced the spike in the wheel by incorporating his Liberal-voting multiculturalists into his strategy to weaken Quebec. I believe this same strategy is being played out by Harper, whose goal is ultimately to keep Quebec in the federation by trying to satisfy various dissenting voting blocks. The irony is he may have lost this immigrant block due to his avoidance of conservative issues like abortion and same sex marriage, which to many are non-negotiable. The White Toronto Liberals are already dyed in the wool, and don’t really care about these fundamentally conservative issues, so no amount of pandering would have changed their minds. Ultimately, Harper would have done himself and Canada a favor by sticking to a strict Conservative (right) platform, by avoiding pandering to the immigrants (who flocked away from him anyway), and by becoming honest about the Quebec condition – that it is impossible to keep and maintain two nations states for an indefinite period of time. Sincerely, Kidist Paulos Asrat

---