Nick Noorani Website

Within four days of calling a general election earlier this month, Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, had visited a Chinese family in Vancouver and spoken at an Italian old people’s home, a Polish community centre, and a lunch hosted by the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce in suburban Toronto.
Mr Harper’s message was the same. As he told the Polish group: “Just as the story of Canada is the story of immigration, the story of the Conservative party is one of supporting immigration [and] welcoming new Canadians.”
The idea of the Tories wooing visible minority votes seemed unlikely before they took office in early 2006. The westerners who make up much of the party’s leadership, including Mr Harper, have long been identified with policies akin to US Republicans.
By Bernard Simon in Toronto
Published: September 24 2008 03:00

As head of a rightwing think-tank, Mr Harper observed in 2001 that Liberal seats west of Winnipeg “are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettos and who are not integrated into western Canadian society”.
But like conservative politicians in some other parts of the world, including the UK and France, Canada’s Tories have come to recognise that ethnic voters could make a significant difference at the polls on October 14, especially in and around the three biggest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Canada takes in close to a quarter of a million immigrants each year, more than any other industrialised country relative to its population.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 18.2 per cent of Canada’s 33m inhabitants were born in another country. The figure for the US is 12.2 per cent, and for the UK just 4.8 per cent. The 2003 United Nations Human Development Report estimated that Toronto had more residents born outside the country than any other city in the world, except Miami.
The top four countries of origin in recent years have been China, India, the Philippines and Pakistan. But many urban neighbourhoods also have sufficiently large Italian, Portuguese, Ukrainian and Somali populations – among others – for politicians to take notice.
Forty members of parliament – with names such as Chow, Rodriguez, Dhaliwal, Khan and Temelkovski – were born outside Canada.
In the current campaign, both Tory and Liberal candidates in one Vancouver constituency are of Chinese descent. In another Vancouver suburb, both candidates have Indian backgrounds.
Immigrants have traditionally been loyal Liberal supporters, partly in gratitude to Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien, the former prime ministers who opened the door to large-scale family reunification.
But that solidarity has begun to crumble. Shylee Someshwar, director of a Toronto IT consultancy who attended the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce lunch, said that immigrant entrepreneurs had grown to appreciate a party that promoted deregulation and small government.
A retired banker added that the Tories “have started to see us as Canadians, not as Indians”. Rising education levels and gradual assimilation have made it more difficult for community leaders to deliver votes en masse, as they often have for the Liberals.
In contrast to the US, the immigration debate in Canada revolves mostly around ways of loosening rather than tightening the rules. Mr Harper constantly reminds audiences of the steps his government has taken to help newcomers adjust to their surroundings.
It has pushed up spending on settlement programmes, halved the immigrant landing fee, and set up an office to help newcomers gain recognition for overseas education and professional credentials, a big hurdle for many.
The Liberals are not far behind, promising to raise immigrant quotas, make it easier for temporary workers and students to apply for foreign residence, and introduce a multiple-entry “welcome Canada” visa for visitors sponsored by Canadian citizens and immigrants.
Speaking in the same Chinese neighbourhood in Vancouver that Mr Harper visited, Stéphane Dion, the Liberal leader, noted “immigration will account for all of Canada’s net labour and population growth during the next five years, and is a key element of the Liberal plan for Canada’s future success”.