When it comes to the sa国际传媒 Liberal Party and that now-infamous leaked memo, take your pick from the smorgasbord of indignation. You could choose righteous anger over the possible misuse of taxpayer dollars. You might be annoyed at the memo鈥檚 greedy, grasping tone outlining how to win voters from ethnic communities.
There are those who would instead choose to stay sanguine, shrugging their shoulders at all the brouhaha. But I am not one of those people.
Tabling for a moment the troubling questions of whether an illegal act occurred through the misuse of taxpayer dollars, let鈥檚 focus on political strategy. It鈥檚 true that attracting ethnic voters goes back as far as the days of Boss Tweed, Irish immigrants and Tammany Hall in 1800s New York.
In sa国际传媒, Pierre Elliott Trudeau first wooed South Asian voters 40 years ago. His techniques were 鈥減erfected鈥� by the Liberal machine under Jean Chr茅tien and Paul Martin, and ripped off by the Conservatives who figuratively ate the Liberals鈥� political lunch by sending MP Jason Kenney to literally eat lunch with any ethnic community group that would sit down with him.
In sa国际传媒, New Democrats revel in the hell they have wrought upon their political rivals by leaking the memo. But don鈥檛 forget the campaign pamphlets they circulated in Vancouver鈥檚 Punjabi Market during the 1996 election, boasting that then-premier Glen Clark, and ministers Moe Sihota and Ujjal Dosanjh could be counted on to 鈥渟tand up for the interests of Indo-Canadians.鈥� The pamphlets claimed the Liberals would 鈥渢hreaten Punjabi language instruction in our schools.鈥� Was there a strategy around that? You bet.
But there鈥檚 a bigger point: That this memo reveals less about the Liberal plan to cure its malaise and more about the collective lack of imagination of all political parties when it comes to ethnic outreach. In a note to supporters, it is a strategy described as 鈥渟omething that鈥檚 necessary,鈥� going on to point out 鈥渢here are over one million British Columbians that are considered by sa国际传媒 Stats as a visible minority. This is a growing segment of our province that deserves effective communications and engagement.鈥�
Yes, but this segment isn鈥檛 getting that. Because in four decades, little about ethnic outreach has changed.
What exactly do these outreach strategists, including the premier鈥檚, think of voters who come from non-Judeo-Christian cultural backgrounds? That they are sheep? That the endorsement of one so-called community leader at a government announcement automatically persuades all? That they have no individual minds or values of their own?
There was a time when a politician鈥檚 visit to a house of worship or cultural community centre represented more than opportunism. A generation ago, when racism and discrimination were far more overt, it was an important signal to visible minorities that they were accepted, respected and invited to participate in the democratic process.
Today, some politicians and strategists of all stripes seem to think all they have to do is show up at a temple with a hanky or scarf on their heads, and their mere presence will send congregants obligingly bleating all the way to the ballot box.
Convincing people to respond to you positively includes working to understand whom you are trying to reach. In the market-research world, that includes recognizing that a voter of Chinese or South Asian origin will have different reactions to government policy based on whether they were born in sa国际传媒, whether they emigrated as adults or children, whether they were educated here or abroad, their age, income and line of work. If that analysis is being done, it鈥檚 not reflected in the memo.
To be fair, some so-called community leaders are complicit in this offensive ethnic oversimplification. They join parties, promising to deliver votes in exchange for recognition and other goodies. A politician of any ethnicity who turns down this kind of help does so at his or her own peril, and may see that community leader take the power base to the next candidate.
Every time something like this happens, it damages multiculturalism. It makes diversity a dirty word. The policy that helped educate my classmates about my culture is threatened every time scandals are associated with it. Just look at the Twitter hashtag assigned to this mess: #ethnicgate, as though ethnicity is to blame.
It also taints justifiable decisions the Liberals have made. Rather than judge the Times of India Film Awards on its economic performance, there are calls to cancel the event outright. The 2008 Komagata Maru apology in the legislature was a moving ceremony. It has now been discredited.
Ultimately, all political parties use the same tired ethnic-outreach strategies because they work. In the same way negative advertising works. Both garner just enough votes to win by playing to a shrinking base that gets smaller as people of all backgrounds are turned off and young voters of all ethnicities tune out precisely because of these tactics.
Isn鈥檛 it time for something new? The old ways don鈥檛 just hurt the Liberals. They hurt democracy. They hurt all of us.
Shachi Kurl is director of communications at Angus Reid Public Opinion.
